
^ , r Effingham JVIay? 



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SHAKESPEARE'S 



A Midsummer-Nights Dream. 



Introduction, Notes, Examination Papers, and 
Plan of Preparation. 

(selected.) 




By BRAINERD KELLOGG, A.M^ 

Professor of the English Language and Literature in the Brooklyn 

Polytechnic Institute, and author of a " Text-Book on Rhetoric, " 

a " Text-Book on English Literature," and one of the authors 

of Reed &* Kellogg 's "Graded Lessons in English" 

and " Higher Lessons in English." 

New Yor£ : 

Effingham Maynard & Co., Publishers, 

771 Broadway and 67 & 69 Ninth St. 

1890. 






kellogg's editions. 
Shakespeare's Plays, 

WITH NOTES. 

Uniform i?i style and price with this volume. 

THUS FAR COMPRISE : 

MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

KING HENRY V. 

AS YOU LIKE IT. 

JULIUS CAESAR. 

KING LEAR. 

MACBETH. 

TEMPEST. 

HAMLET. 

KING HENRY VIII. 

KING HENRY IV., Part I. 

KING RICHARD III. 

A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 

A WINTER'S TALE. 



Copyright, 1890, by 
EFFINGHAM MAYNARD & CO, 



EDITOR'S NOTE. 

The text here presented, adapted for use in mixed 
classes, has been carefully collated with that of six or 
seven of the latest and best editions. Where there was 
any disagreement those readings have been adopted 
which seemed most reasonable and were supported bj 
the best authority. 

The notes of English editors have been freely used. 
Those taken as the basis of our work have been rigor- 
ously pruned wherever they were thought too learned 
or too minute, or contained matter that for any other 
reason seemed unsuited to our purpose. We have 
generously added to them, also, wherever they seemed 
to be lacking. B. K. 



GENERAL NOTICE. 



" An attempt has been made in these new editions to 
interpret Shakespeare by the aid of Shakespeare himself. 
The Method of Comparison has been constantly employ- 
ed ; and the language used by him in one place has been 
compared with the language used in other places in simi- 
lar circumstances, as well as with older English and with 
newer English. The text has been as carefully and as 
thoroughly annotated as the text of any Greek or Latin 
classic. 

" The first purpose in this elaborate annotation is, of 
course the full working out of Shakespeare's meaning. 
The Editor has in all circumstances taken as much pains 
with this as if he had been making out the difficult and 
obscure terms of a will in which he himself was personally 
interested ; and he submits that this thorough excavation 
of the meaning of a really profound thinker is one of the 
very best kinds of training that a boy or girl can receive at 
school. This is to read the very mind of Shakespeare, and 
to weave his thoughts into the fibre of one's own mental 
constitution. And always new rewards come to the care- 
ful reader — in the shape of new meanings, recognition of 
5 



VI 



thoughts he had before missed, of relations between the 
characters that had hitherto escaped him. For reading 
Shakespeare is just like examining Nature ; there are no 
hollownesses, there is no scamped work, for Shakespeare 
is as patiently exact and as first-hand as Nature herself. 

" Besides this thorough working-out of Shakespeare's 
meaning, advantage has been taken of the opportunity to 
teach his English — to make each play an introduction to 
the English of Shakespeare. For this purpose copi- 
ous collections of similar phrases have been gathered from 
other plays ; his idioms have been dwelt upon ; his pecu- 
liar use of words ; his style and his rhythm. Some 
Teachers may consider that too many instances are given ; 
but, in teaching, as in everything else, the old French say- 
ing is true : Assez tfy a, s'il trop tfy a. The Teacher 
need not require each pupil to give him all the instances 
collected. If each gives one or two, it will probably be 
enough ; and, among them all, it is certain that one ortw> 
will stick in the memory. It is probable that, for those pu~ 
pils who do not study either Greek or Latin, this close ex- 
amination of every word and phrase in the text of Shake- 
speare will be the best substitute that can be found for the 
study of the ancient classics. 

" It were much to be hoped that Shakespeare should 
become more and more of a study, and that every boy 
and girl should have a thorough knowledge of at least one 
play of Shakespeare before leaving school. It would be 
one of the best lessons in human life, without the chance 
of a polluting or degrading experience. It would also 
have the effect of bringing back into the too pale and for- 
mal English of modern times a large number of pithy and 



vii 

vigorous phrases which would help to develop as well as 
to reflect vigor in the characters of the readers. Shake- 
speare used the English language with more power than 
any other writer that ever lived — he made it do more and 
say more than it had ever done ; he made it speak in a 
more original way ; and his combinations of words are per- 
petual provocations and invitations to originality and to 
newness of insight." — J. M. D. Meiklejohn, M.A., 
Professor of the Theory \ History, and Practice of Educa- 
tion in the University of St. Andrews. 



Shakespeare's Grammar. 

Shakespeare lived at a time when the grammar and vocabulary of. 
the English language were in a state of transition. Various points 
were not yet settled ; and so Shakespeare's grammar is not only 
somewhat different from our own but is by no means uniform in 
itself. In the Elizabethan age, " Almost any part of speech can be 
used, as any other part of speech. An adverb can be used as a verb, 
' They askance their eyes ; ' as a noun, ' the backward and abysm 
of time;' or as an adjective, 'a seldom pleasure.' Any noun, ad- 
jective, or neuter [intrans.] verb can be us<ed as an active [trans.] 
verb. You can ' happy ' your friend, ' malice ' or ' foot ' your en- 
emy, or ' fall ' an axe on his neck. An adjective can be used as 
an adverb; and you can speak and act 'easy,' 'free,' 'excel- 
lent;' or as a noun, and you can talk of 'fair' instead of 'beau- 
ty,' and ' a pale ' instead of ' a paleness.' Even the pronouns are 
not exempt from these metamorphoses. A ' he ' is used for a man, 
and a lady is described by a gentleman as ' the fairest she he has yet 
beheld.' In the second place, every variety of apparent grammati- 
cal inaccuracy meets us. He for him, him for he ; spoke and took for 
spoken and taken ; plural nominatives with singular verbs ; relatives 
omitted where they are now considered necessary ; unnecessary an- 
tecedents inserted ; shall for will, should for would, would for wish ; 
to omitted after '2 ought,' inserted after ' I durst;'' double nega- 
tives : double comparatives (' more better,' &c.) and superlatives ; 
such followed by which [or that], that by as, as used for as if; that 
ior so that ; and lastly some verbs apparently with two nominatives, 
and others without any nominative at all."— Dr. Abbott's Shakespe* 
rian Grammar. 

Shakespeare's Versification. 

Shakespeare's Plays are written mainly in what is known as un- 
limed, or blank-verse; but they contain a number of riming, and a 
considerable number of prose, lines. As a general rule, rime is 
much commoner in the earlier than in the later plays. Thus, Love's 
Labors Lost contains nearly 1,100 rimins lines, while (if we except 
the songs) Winter's Tale has none. The Merchant of Venice has 
124. 

In speaking we lay a stress on particular syllables : this stress is 
called accent. When the words of a composition are so arranged 
that the accent recurs at regular intervals, the composition is said to 
be metrical or rhythmical. Rhythm, or Metre, is an embellishment 
of language which, though it does not constitute poetry itself, yet 
provides it with a suitably elegant dress ; and hence most mode-n 
poets have written in metre. In blank verse the lines consist v — 



fl-Ty of ten syllables, of which the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and 
Jenth are accented. The line consists, therefore, of Ave parts, each 
of which contains an unaccented followed by an accented syllable, 
as in the word attend. Each of these five parts forms what is called 
a. foot or measure ; and the five together form a pentameter. " Penta- 
meter "is a Greek word signifying "five measures." This is the 
usual form of a line of blank verse. But a long poem composed en- 
tirely of such lines would be monotonous, and for the sake of variety 
several important modifications have been introduced. 

(a) After the tenth syllable, one or two unaccented syllables are 
sometimes added ; as— 

" Me-thought \ you said \ you nei | ther lend \ nor bor I row.'''' 

(6) In any foot the accent may be shifted from the second to the 
first syllable, provided two accented syllables do not come together. 

" Pluck' the | young suck' \ ing cubs' \from the' | she bear'. | " 

(c) In snch words as "yesterday," "voluntary," "honesty," the 
syllables -day, -ta-, and ty falling in the place of the accent, are, 
for the purposes of the verse, regarded as truly accented. 

" Bars' me I the right' \ of vol'- \ un-ta' I ry choos' \ ing.~" 

(d) Sometimes we have a succession of accented syllables ; this 
occurs with monosyllabic feet only. 

" Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark.'''' 

{e) Sometimes, but more rarely, two or even three unaccented 
syllables occupy the place of one ; as — 

"He says | he does, | be-ing then \ most flat | ter-ed.' 1 

(f) Lines may have any number of feet from one to six. 

Finally, Shakespeare adds much to the pleasing variety of hir 
Dlank verse by placing the pauses in different parts of the line 
(especially after the second or third foot), instead of placing them 
all at the ends of lines, as was the earlier custom. 

N. B.— In some cases the rhythm requires that what we usually 
pronounce as one syllable shall be divided into two, asfl-er (fire), 
su-er (sure), mi-el /mile), &c. ; too-elve (twelve), jaw-ee (joy), &c. 
Similarly, she-on (tion or -sion). 

It is very important to give the pupil plenty of ear-trainin/* by 
means of formal scansion. This will greatly assist him in *** 
reading. . 



PLAN OF STUDY 



PERFECT POSSESSION/ 



To attain to the standard of ' Perfect Pos- 
session,' the reader ought to have an inti- 
mate and ready knowledge of the subject. 
(See opposite page.) 

The student ought, first of all, to read the 
play as a pleasure ; then to read it over again, 
with his mind upon the characters and the 
plot ; and lastly, to read it for the meanings, 
grammar, &c. 

With the help of the scheme, he can easily 
draw up for himself short examination papers 
(i) on each scene, (2) on each act, (3) on 
the whole play. 



1. The Plot and Story of the Play. 

(a) The general plot ; 

(b) The special incidents. 

2. The Characters: Ability to give a connected account 

of all that is done and most of what is said by 
each character in the play. 

3. The Influence and Interplay of the Characters upon 

each other. 

(a) Relation of A to B and of B to A ; 

(b) Relation of A to C and D. 

4. Complete Possession of the Language. 

(a) Meanings of words ; 

(b) Use of old words, or of words in an old mean- 

ing ; 

(c) Grammar ; 

(d) Ability to quote lines to illustrate a gram- 

matical point. 

5. Power to Reproduce, or Quote. 

(a) What was said by A or B on a particular 

occasion ; 

(b) What was said by A in reply to B ; 

(c) What argument was used by C at a particu- 

lar juncture ; 

(d) To quote a line in instance of an idiom or of 

a peculiar meaning. 

6. Power to Locate. 

(a) To attribute a line or statement to a certain 

person on a certain occasion ; 
(6) To cap a line ; 
(c) To fill in the right word or epithet. 



INTRODUCTION 

TO 

A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 

There are four old editions of this play, and the re- 
ceived text is an eclectic text made up from the four, 
with the addition of several conjectural emendations of 
the earlier editors and commentators, some of which 
appear too probable and valuable to be rejected even by 
the most conservative adherents of the original texts. The 
first of these editions was in quarto form, and appears 
thus on the Register of the Stationers' Company : " 8 Oct. 
1600 Tho. Fysher] A booke called a Mydsomer nights 
Dreame." The second was also a quarto, and appeared 
in the same year, " printed by lames Roberts, 1600." The 
second was merely a reprint of the first, and was probably 
a pirated edition printed for the use of the players. It 
was the edition however that was followed in the famous 
first folio of 1623 — the third of our editions — some of its 
obvious misprints being copied there in spite of its ed- 
itors' depreciatory remarks about sundry earlier " stolne 
and surreptitious" copies of the plays. The fourth edition 
of importance is of course the second folio of 1632, a 
reprint of the first, containing conjectural emendations, 
which are however more often wrong than right. 

10 



IN TROD UCTION. 1 1 

The earliest known reference to the play occurs in the 
Palladis Tamia of Francis Meres, published in 1598. Its 
composition is dated by Drake, 1593 ; by Chalmers, 1598; 
by Malone, 1594; by Delius, later than 1594; by Fleay, 
1592 ; but the evidence points most strongly to 1593 or 
1594. It is difficult to resist the belief that the passage in 
Act II. (sc. i. 88-114), in which Titania describes the 
recent bad seasons, owed its point to the similar weather 
in the years 1593 and 1594, which would still be fresh in 
people's memories. Again, the lines in Act V. (sc. i. 
52, 53) alluding to the recent hapless fortune of a poet 
and a scholar, correspond well either to Spenser's poem, 
The Tears of the Muses, published in 1591, or to Robert 
Greene's miserable death in 1592. Metrical tests, more- 
over, prove that the play was an early work written about 
the same time as the Two Gentlemen of Verona. It con- 
tains a large proportion of rhyming lines — one of the 
safest marks of its being an early work, as rhymed lines 
become fewer and fewer in Shakespeare's later plays. But 
too much must not be made of this in comparing it with 
plays of the same period, as the character of our play 
naturally called for a more liberal use of rhyme than usual. 
Such a succession of rhymes repeating a single sound as 
occur in Act III. (sc. i. 102-109), and Act. IV. (sc. i. 82- 
89), were of course introduced with a special purpose. 
Here also we find comparatively few lines where the pause 
or break occurs in any part of the line save at the end. 
This is a second test of the date of the composition of a 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

play, as Shakespeare in his earlier plays usually has his 
pauses and breaks at the end of the line, while gradually 
he came more and more to carry on the sense from one 
line to another without a pause at the end of the line, with 
an obvious gain to the flexibility and variety of his dra- 
matic dialogue. A third test of time from the meter is the 
use of weak and unemphatic monosyllabic endings. These 
scarcely appear at all in the earlier plays — the present 
play contains but one — while they are frequent in plays 
like Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. Again, double 
or feminine endings — that is, lines with an extra end- 
syllable are very rare in the earlier plays, becoming 
very numerous in such later plays as Cymbeline and the 
Tempest. * 

Our play then may be fearlessly dated as having been 
written about 1593 or 1594. It has been conjectured that 
it was written to grace the wedding of some noble person 
— Southampton, who was married in 1598, or Essex, who 
was married in 1 590 ; but from what has been said above, 
it will be seen that the second date is too early, the other 
too late. It was probably acted before Elizabeth. The 
praise of " single blessedness" (Act I. sc. i. 74-78) would be 

* Mr. Fleay, in his Shakespeare Manual (1878), p. 135, gives the 
following statistics about A Midsummer-Night's Dream l Total 
number of lines, 2251 ; of prose lines, 441 ; blank-verse lines, 878 ; 
rhymes, five measures, 731; rhymes, short lines, 138 ; songs, 63 ; 
double endings, 29 ; alternately rhyming lines, 158 ; two measures, 
5 ; three measures, 3. 



IN TR OD UC TION. i 3 

pleasing to the ears of the maiden queen, and Oberon's 
vision (Act II. sc. i. 145-165), Warburton's ingenuity 
apart, beyond a doubt contains a splendid piece of poetic 
flattery to Elizabeth. 

The action of the play is comprised within three days, 
concluding with the night of the new moon; though there 
is some confusion of time, as will be seen, the note of time 
at the beginning being inconsistent with the discourse of 
the clowns in Act III. (i. 45-)* 

The plot of A Midsummer-Night ' s Dream is entirely 
Shakespeare's own, though, as usual, in working it out, 
he borrowed freely from other sources. He had read 
carefully the life of Theseus in North's Plutarch, and he 
may have read Chaucer's Knight's Tale. For the inter- 
lude of Pyramus and Thisbe he was doubtless indebted to 
Golding's translation of Ovid, and Chaucer's Thisbe of 
Babylon. Robin Goodfellow and his other fairies he 
owed to the rich folk-lore of his boyhood, but Oberon 
may have been suggested to him by Greene's James IV. 
of Scotland. 

The play has not kept its place upon the stage, and it is 
unlikely ever to be successful there. As Hazlitt has said, 
" A Midsu7n?ner-Night 's Dream, when acted, is converted 

* Mr. Daniel, in the Transactions of the New Shakespeare 
Society (1877-79), p. 149, gives the following " time-analysis 11 of the 
play: 

Day 1. Act I. 
" a. Acts II., III., and part of sc. i. Act IV. 
" 3, Part of sc. i. Act. IV., sc. ii. Act IV., and Apt V. 



1 4 IN TR OD UC TIO N. 

from a delightful fiction into a dull pantomime. . . . Fancy 
cannot be embodied any more than a simile can be painted; 
and it is as idle to attempt it as to personate Wall or 
Moons/iine. . . . The boards of a theatre and the region 
of fancy are not the same thing." The most amusing cir- 
cumstance in the history of the play is Pepys' record in 
his Diary, under date September 29, 1662 : "To the 
King's Theatre, where we saw Midsummer-Night's Dream, 
which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for 
it is the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw in 
my, life." 

Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer-Night' 's Dream at a 
time of his life when fancy was strong, and a sense of the 
prose realities of life comparatively weak. The action of 
the play depends on circumstances hardly even hypothet- 
ically possible. It is quite without a parallel in dramatic 
literature. The only other play of Shakespeare resem- 
bling it in its preternatural machinery is the Tempest, 
which however is of quite another mood in feeling and 
thought, and, with perhaps higher attributes, wants its 
peculiar fascination. It is, as Coleridge described it, " one 
continued specimen of the dramatized lyrical," the whole 
a fabric of the most creative and visionary imagination. 
We move amid a delightful world of ideal forms, and at 
the touch of the magician these " airy nothings" assume 
for us " a local habitation and a name." The charm he 
has cast around the fairy world has changed permanently, 
for English-speaking people, their conceptions of its 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

inhabitants. Under the spell of his creation we have for- 
gotten all the ugliness and malignity of the old fairy 
world, and now we see only its abiding grace and beauty; 
and indeed it is hardly too much to say that it is to the 
master-hand of Shakespeare that our children mainly owe 
their heritage of an imaginative world of fascinating 
beauty, peopled by ideal forms full of sportive kindliness 
to be regarded with perpetual interest and love instead of 
repugnance and terror. In our play the unreal and 
shadowy world becomes real to us, while the real world 
with its actual life becomes less distinct and real looking, 
as is quite consistent in a dream. Consequently the 
human interest is of less importance than the supernatural 
— the two pairs of young lovers are graceful figures 
enough, but they do not touch us with the quick sympa- 
thies of fellow men and women, and we find ourselves 
wonderfully indifferent to their crossed loves and other 
perplexities. Duke Theseus and Hippolyta are heroic 
medieval figures, full of splendor and romantic quality, 
but they do not breathe with the same life as the kings 
and queens of later plays. Most of the persons are too 
idealized and distant from us to feel their brotherhood as 
English men and women. It is only bully Bottom and 
his honest fellows that bring us back to the village green 
and homely familiar English life. From their lips we 
hear the everyday speech of kindly Warwickshire, and 
with them we feel that we stand once more on the familiar 
earth. Their humor is all the more delightful after we 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

have breathed for a while the upper air, and already gives 
promise of the infinitely richer and fuller but hardly 
more genial and human humor that we ore to find in later 
plays. 



DRAMATIS PERSONiE. 

Theseus, Duke to Athens. 

EGEUS, father to Hermia. 

Lysander, ) . , . , TT 

^ V in love wit n Hermit 

Demetrius, ) 

Philostrate, master of the revels to Theseus, 

Quince, a carpenter. 

Snug, a joiner. 

Bottom, a weaver. 

Flute, a bellows-mender. 

Snout, a tinker. 

Starveling, a tailor. 

Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus* 

Hermia, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysando- , 

Helena, in love with Demetrius. 

Oberon, king of the fairies. 

TlTANlA, queen of the fairies. 

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, a fairy* 

Peaseblossom, 

Cobweb, 

Moth, 

Mustardseed, 



yfairies. 



IS 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 



Pyramus, 

Thisbe, 

Wall, 

Moonshine 

Lion, 



characters in the Interlude performed 
by the clowns. 



Other fairies attending their King and Queen. 

Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta. 
SCENE.— Athens and a Wood near it. 



A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 



ACT I. 



SCENE I. Athens. A Room in the Palace of 
Theseus. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, and 
Attendants. 

The. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial-hour 
Draws on apace ; four happy days bring in 
Another moon: but O, methinks, how slow 
This old moon wanes ! she lingers my desires, 
Like to a step-dame, or a dowager, 
Long withering out a young man's revenue. 

Hip. Four days will quickly steep themselves in 
night ; 
Four nights will quickly dream away the time; 
And then the moon, like to a silver bow 
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night 
Of our solemnities. 

The. Go, Philostrate, 

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; 
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth: 
Turn melancholy forth to funerals, — 

i9 



20 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act i. 

The pale companion is not for our pomp. 

{Exit Philostrate. 
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, 
And won thy love, doing thee injuries ; 
But I will wed thee in another key, 
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. 

Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, «;^Demetrius. 

20 Egc. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! 

The. Thanks, good Egeus : what's the news with 

thee? 
Ege. Full of vexation come I, with complaint 
Against my child, my daughter Hermia. 
Stand forth, Demetrius. — My noble lord, 
This man hath my consent to marry her. 
Stand forth, Lysander: — and, my gracious duke, 
This hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child. 
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes, 
And interchang'd love-tokens with my child : 

30 Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung 
With feigning voice verses of feigning love ; 
And stol'n the impression of her fantasy 
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, 
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats — messengers 
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth. 
With cunning hast thou filch 'd my daughter's heart; 
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, 
To stubborn harshness : and, my gracious duke, 
Be' t so she will not here before your grace 

40 Consent to marry with Demetrius, 

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, — 
As she is mine, I may dispose of her: 



Sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 21 

Which shall be either to this gentleman 
Or to her death, according to our law 
Immediately provided in that case. 

The. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair 
maid : 
To you your father should be as a god ; 
One that compos'd your beauties ; yea, and one 
To whom you are but as a form in wax, 
By him imprinted, and within his power 5- 

To leave the figure or disfigure it. 
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. 

Her. So is Lysander. 

The. In himself he is ; 

But in this kind, wanting your father's voice, 
The other must be held the worthier. 

Her. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. 

The. Rather your eyes must with his judgment 
look. 

Her. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. 
I know not by what power I am made bold, 
Nor how it may concern my modesty, 60 

In such a presence here to plead my thoughts 
But I beseech your grace that I may know 
The worst that may befall me in this case, 
If I refuse to wed Demetrius. 

The. Either to die the death, or to abjure 
For ever the society of men. 
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires; 
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, 
You can endure the livery of a nun ; 7° 

For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, 
To live a barren sister all vour life, 



22 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S BREAM, [acc i. 

Chanting faint hynwas to the cold fruitless moon. 

Thrice blessed they that master so their blood 

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage ; 

But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd 

Than that which, withering on the virgin throne, 

Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. 

Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, 
80 Ere I will yield my virgin patent up 
Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke 
My soul consents not to give sovereignty. 

The. Take time to pause; and by the next new 
moon — 
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me, 
For everlasting bond of fellowship — 
Upon that day either prepare to die 
For disobedience to your father's will, 
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would ; 
Or on Diana's altar to protest 
93 For aye austerity and single life. 

Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia: — and, Lysandcr, 
yield 
Thy crazed title to my certain right. 

Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius ; 
Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. 

Ege. Scornful Lysander ! true, he hath my love, 
And what is mine my love shall render him ; 
And she is mine, and all my right of her 
I do estate unto Demetrius. 

Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, 
100 As well possess'd ; my love is more than his ; 
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd, 
If not with vantage, as Demetrius's ; 
And, which is more than all these boasts can be, 



SC. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT 7 S DREAM. 23 

I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia : 

Why should not I then prosecute my right ? 

Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head, 

Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, 

And won her soul ; and she, sweet lady, dotes, 

Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, 

Upon this spotted and inconstant man. 

TJic. I must confess that I have heard so much, 
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof ; 
But, being overfull of self-affairs, 
My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come ; 
And come, Egeus ; you shall go with me, 
I have some private schooling for you both. 
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself 
To fit your fancies to your father's will ; 
Or else the law of Athens holds you up — 
Which by no means we may extenuate — 
To death, or to a vow of single life. 
Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love? 
Demetrius and Egeus, go along : 
I must employ you in some business 
Against our nuptial ; and confer with you 
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. 

Ege. With duty and desire we follow you. 

{Exeunt all but Lysander and Hermia. 

Lys. How now, my love ! Why is your cheek so 
pale ? 
How chance the roses there to fade so fast ? 

Her. Belike for want of rain, which I could well 
Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes. 

Lys. Ay me ! for aught that ever I could read, 
Could ever hear by tale or history, 
The course of true love never did run smooth : 



24 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act I, 

But, either it was different in blood, — 
Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low ! 
Lys. Or else misgraffed in respect of years, — 
Her. O spite ! too old to be engag'd to young ! 
Lys. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends ,— - 
140 Her. O hell ! to choose love by another's eye ! 
Lys. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, 
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, 
Making it momentany as a sound, 
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream ; 
Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 
That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth, 
And ere a man hath power to say, " Behold ! " 
The jaws of darkness do devour it up: 
So quick bright things come to confusion. 
150 Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, 
It stands as an edict in destiny : 
Then let us teach our trial patience, 
Because it is a customary cross ; 
As due to love as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, 
Wishes, and tears, poor fancy's followers. 
Lys. A good persuasion : therefore, hear me, Her- 
mia. 
I have a widow aunt, a dowager 
Of great revenue, and she hath no child : 
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues ; 
160 And she respects me as her only son. 

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee ; 
And to that place the sharp Athenian law 
Cannot pursue us. If thou lov'st me then, 
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night ; 
And in the wood, a league without the town, 
Where I did meet thee once with Helena 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 25 

To do observance to a morn of May, 
There will I stay for thee. 

Her. My good Lysander ! 

I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow, 
By his best arrow with the golden head, 170 

By the simplicity of Venus' doves, 
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, 
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen 
When the false Trojan under sail was seen, 
By all the vows that ever men have broke, 
In number more than ever women spoke, — 
In that same place thou has appointed me, 
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. 

Lys. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes 
Helena. 

Enter Helena. 

Her. God speed fair Helena ! Whither away ? 180 
Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. 
Demetrius loves your fair : O happy fair ! 
Your eyes are lode-stars ; and your tongue's sweet 

air 
More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear, 
When wheat is green, when hawthorn-buds appear. 
Sickness is catching : O, were favor so, 
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go ; 
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, 
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet 

melody. 
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, 190 

The rest I'd give to be to you translated. 
O teach me how you look ; and with what art 
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart ! 



26 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act. i. 

Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. 

Hel. O that your frowns would teach my smiles 
such skill ! 

Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. 

Hel. O that my prayers could such affection 
move ! 

Her. The more I hate, the more he follows me. 

Hel. The more I love, the more he hateth me. 
200 Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. 

Hel. None, but your beauty : would that fault were 
mine ! 

Her. Take comfort : he no more shall see my face ; 
Lysander and myself will fly this place. 
Before the time I did Lysander see, 
Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me: 
O then, what graces in my love do dwell 
That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell ! 

Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold : 
To-morrow night, when Phcebe doth behold 
210 Her silver visage in the watery glass, 

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, — 
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal, — 
Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal. 

Her. And in the wood, where often you and I 
Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie, 
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, 
There my Lysander and myself shall meet ; 
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes 
To seek new friends and stranger companies. 
220 Farewell, sweet playfellow : pray thou for us, 
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius ! 
Keep word, Lysander : we must starve our sight 
From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight. 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 27 

Lys. I will, my Hermia [Exit Hermia]. — Helena, 
adieu ; 
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you ! 

[Exit Lys and er. 

Hel. How happy some o'er other some can be ! 
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. 
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so ; 
He will not know what all but he do know : 
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, 230 

So I, admiring of his qualities. 
Things base and vile, holding no quantity, 
Love can transpose to form and dignity : 
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind ; 
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind: 
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste ; 
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste : 
And therefore is Love said to be a child, 
Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. 
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, 240 

So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere : 
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne, 
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine ; 
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, 
So he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt. 
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight : 
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night 
Pursue her; and for this intelligence 
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense : 
But herein mean I to enrich my pain, 250 

To have his sight thither and back again. {Exit. 



28 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act i. 

SCENE II. The same. A Room in Quince's House. 

£nter Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, Quince, and 
Starveling. 

Quin. Is all our company here ? 

Bot. You were best to call them generally, man 
by man, according to the scrip. 

Quin. Here is the scroll of every man's name 
which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in 
our interlude before the duke and duchess, on his 
wedding-day at night. 

Bot. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play 
treats on ; then read the names of the actors ; and 
lOso grow to a point. 

Quin. Marry, our play is — The most lamentable 
Comedy and most cruel Death of Pyramus and 
Thisby. 

Bot. A very good piece of work, I assure you, 
and a merry. — Now, good Peter Quince, call forth 
your actors by the scroll. Masters, spread your- 
selves. 

Quin. Answer, as I call you. Nick Bottom, the 
weaver. 
20 Bot. Ready. Name what part I am for, and pro- 
ceed. 

Quin. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyra- 
mus. 

Bot. What is Pyramus ? a lover, or a tyrant ? 

Quin. A lover, that kills himself most gallant for 
love. 

Bot. That will ask some tears in the true per- 
forming of it: if I do it, let the audience look to 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 29 

their eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in 
some measure. To the rest : yet my chief humor 30 
is for a tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part 
to tear a cat in, to make all split. 

The raging rocks 
And shivering shocks 
Shall break the locks 

Of prison-gates ; 
And Phibbus' car 
Shall shine from far, 
And make and mar 

The foolish Fates. 4° 

This was lofty ! Now name the rest of the players. 
This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein ; a lover is more 
condoling. 

Quin. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. 

Flu. Here, Peter Quince. 

Quiii. You must take Thisby on you. 

Fht. What is Thisby? a wandering knight? 

Quin. It is the lady that Pyramus must love. 

Flu. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman ; I have 
a beard coming. 50 

Quin. That's all one ; you shall play it in a mask, 
and you may speak as small as you will. 

Bot. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby 
too : I'll speak in a monstrous little voice ; — 
" Thisne, Thisne" — "Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear! 
thy Thisby dear, and lady dear!" 

Quin. No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, 
Flute, you Thisby. 

Bot. Well, proceed. 

Quin. Robin Starveling, the tailor. 6o* 



30 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT 1 S DREAM, [act l 

Star. Here, Peter Quince. 

Quzn. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's 
mother. Tom Snout, the tinker. 

Snout. Here, Peter Quince. 

Qitin. You, Pyramus's father ; myself Thisby's 
father ; — Snug, the joiner, you, the lion's part : — 
and, I hope, here is a play fitted. 

Snug. Have you the lion's part written ? pray 
you, if it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. 
70 Quzn. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing 
but roaring. 

Bot. Let me play the lion too : I will roar, that I 
will do any man's heart good to hear me; I will 
roar, that I will make the duke say, " Let him roar 
again, let him roar again." 

Quin. An you should do it too terribly, you 
would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they 
would shriek ; and that were enough to hang us all. 

All. That would hang us, every mother's son. 
So Bot. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright 
the ladies out of their wits, they would have no 
more discretion but to hang us ; but 1 will aggravate 
my voice so, that I will roar you as gently as any 
sucking-dove ; I will roar you an 't were any night- 
ingale. 

Quzn. You can play no part but Pyramus : for 

Pyramus is a sweet-faced man ; a proper man, as 

one shall see in a summer's day ; a most lovely, 

gentleman-like man ; therefore you must needs play 

90 Pyramus. 

Bot. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were 
I best to play it in ? 

Quin. Why, what you will. 



SC. II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 31 

Bot. I will discharge it in either your straw-color 
beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in- 
grain beard, or your French-crown-color beard, 
your perfect yellow. 

Quiii. Some of your French crowns have no hair 
at all, and then you will play barefaced. But, mas- 
ters, here are your parts : and I am to entreat you, 100 
request you, and desire you, to con them by to- 
morrow night ; and meet me in the palace wood, a 
mile without the town, by moonlight; there will 
we rehearse, for, if we meet in the city, we shall be 
dogged with company, and our devices known. In 
the mean time I will draw a bill of properties, such 
as our play wants. I pray you, fail me not. 

Bot. We will meet ; and there we may rehearse 
more obscenely and courageously. Take pains ; be 
perfect: adieu. no 

Quin. At the duke's oak we meet. 

Bot. Enough ; hold or cut bow-strings. {Exeunt. 



ACT II. 

SCENE I. A Wood near Athens. 

Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy and Puck. 

Puck. • How now, spirit ! whither wander you ? 

Fai. Over hill, over dale, 

Thorough bush, thorough brier, 
Over park, over pale, 

Thorough flood, thorough fire, 
I do wander everywhere, 



32 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act n„ 

Swifter than the moon's sphere; 

And I serve the fairy queen, 

To dew her orbs upon ihe green. 

10 The cowslips tall her pensioners be : 
In their gold coats spots you see ; 
Those be rubies, fairy favors, 
In those freckles live their savors : 
I must go seek some dew-drops here, 
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 
Farewell, thou lob of spirits ; I'll be gone ; 
\\ Our queen and all our elves come here anon. 

Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night: 
Take heed the queen come not within his sight ; 

20 For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, 
Because that she, as her attendant, hath 
A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king; 
She never had so sweet a changeling: 
And jealous Oberon would have the child 
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild ; 
But she perforce withholds the loved boy, 
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her 

joy: 
And now they never meet in grove or green, 
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen, 

30 But they do square, that all their elves for fear 
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there. 

Fat. Either I mistake your shape and making 
quite 
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite 
Call'd Robin Goodfellow : are you not he 
That frights the maidens of the villagery ; 
Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern, 
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn ; 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 33 

And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm ; 
Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm ? 
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck, 40 
You do their work, and they shall have good-luck : 
Are not you he ? 

Puck. Thou speak'st aright : 

I am that merry wanderer of the night. 
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile 
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, 
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal : 
And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, 
In very likeness of a roasted crab ; 
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob 
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. 50 

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, 
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me ; 
Then slip I from her, when down topples she, 
And "tailor" cries, and falls into a cough ; 
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh 
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear 
A merrier hour was never wasted there. 
But, room, fairy ! here comes Oberon. 

Fat. And here my mistress. — Would that he were 
gone ! 

Enter, from one side, Oberon with his train ; and 
from the other, Titania with hers. 

Ode. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. 60 

Tita. What, jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence; 
I have forsworn his bed and company. 

Ode. Tarry, rash wanton : am not I thy lord ? 

Tita. Then I must be thy lady : but I know 
When thou hast stol'n away from fairy-land, 



34 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act 11. 

And in the shape of Corin sat all day, 
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love 
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, 
Come from the farthest steppe of India, 

70 But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, 
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, 
To Theseus must be wedded ? and you come 
To give their bed joy and prosperity. 

Ode. How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, 
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, 
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? 
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering- 
night 
From Perigenia, whom he ravished ? 
And make him with fair yEgle break his faith, 

80 With Ariadne and Antiopa ? 

Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy : 
And never, since the middle summer's spring, 
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, 
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, 
Or in the beached margent of the sea, 
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, 
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. 
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, 
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea 

90 Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land, 
Hath every pelting river made so proud 
That they have overborne their continents : 
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, 
The plowman lost his sweat; and the green corn 
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard : 
The fold stands empty in the drowned field, 
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock ; 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 35 

The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud, 

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green 

For lack of tread are undistinguishable ; 100 

The human mortals want their winter here ; 

No night is now with hymn or carol blest : 

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, 

Pale in her anger, washes all the air, 

That rheumatic diseases do abound : 

And thorough this distemperature we see 

The seasons alter : hoary-headed frosts 

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; 

And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown 

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer-buds 1 10 

Is, as in mockery, set : the spring, the summer, 

The childing autumn, angry winter, change 

Their wonted liveries ; and the mazed world, 

By their increase, now knows not which is which : 

And this same progeny of evils comes 

From our debate, from our dissension; 

We are their parents and original. 

Obe. Do you amend it then ; it lies in you : 
Why should Titania cross her Oberon ? 
I do but beg a little changeling boy 120 

To be my henchman. 

Tita. Set your heart at rest : 

The fairy-land buys not the child of me. 
His mother was a votaress of my order : 
And in the spiced Indian air, by night, 
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side, 
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, 
Marking the embarked traders on the flood ; 
Which she with pretty and with swimming gait 
Would imitate, and sail upon the land 



36 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT 1 S DREAM, [act II. 

I 3°To fetch me trifles, and return again, 
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. 
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die ; 
And for her sake I do rear up her boy, 
And for her sake I will not part with him. 

Obe. How long within this wood intend you stay ? 

Tita. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day. 
If you will patiently dance in our round 
And see our moonlight revels, go with us ; 
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. 
140 Obe. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. 

Tita. Not for thy fairy kingdom. — Fairies, away ! 
We shall chide downright if I longer stay. 

[Exit Titania, with her train. 

Ode. Well, go thy way : thou shalt not from this 
grove 
Till I torment thee for this injury. 
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest 
Since once I sat upon a promontory 
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 
That the rude sea grew civil at her song, 
150 And certain stars shot madly from their spheres 
To hear the sea-maid's music. 

Puck. I remember. 

Obe. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, 
Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 
Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took 
At a fair vestal throned by the west, 
And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, 
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts: 
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 
Ouench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon, 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT 'S DREAM. 37 

And the imperial votaress passed on, 160 

In maiden meditation, fancy-free. 

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 

It fell upon a little western flower, 

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, 

And maidens call it love-in-idleness. 

Fetch me that flower ; the herb I show'd thee once : 

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid 

Will make or man or woman madly dote 

Upon the next live creature that it sees. 

Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again 170 

Ere the leviathan can swim a league. 

Puck. I'll put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes. [Exit PUCK. 

Obe. Having once this juice, 

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, 
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes. 
The next thing then she waking looks upon, 
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, 
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, 
She shall pursue it with the soul of love. 
And ere I take this charm off from her sight, — 180 
As I can take it with another herb, — 
I'll make her render up her page to me. 
But who comes here? I am invisible; 
And I will overhear their conference. 

Enter Demetrius, Helen a following ki?n. 

Dem. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. 
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? 
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. 
Thou told'st me they were stol'n unto this wood, 



38 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act; II. 

And here am I, and wood within this wood, 

190 Because I cannot meet my Hermia. 

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. 

Hel. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant ; 
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart 
Is true as steel : leave you your power to draw, 
And I shall have no power to follow you. 

Dem. Do I entice you ? Do I speak you fair ? 
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth 
Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you ? 

Hel. And even for that do I love you the more. 

200 I am your spaniel ; and, Demetrius, 

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you : 
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, 
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, 
Unworthy as I am, to follow you. 
What worser place can I beg in your love, — 
And yet a place of high respect with me, — 
Than to be used as you use your dog ? 

Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, 
For I am sick when I do look on thee. 

210 Hel. And I am sick when I look not on you. 

Dem. You do impeach your modesty too much 
To leave the city and commit yourself 
Into the hands of one that loves you not ; 
To trust the opportunity of night 
And the ill counsel of a desert place 
With the rich worth of your virginity. 

Hel. Your virtue is my privilege : for that 
It is not night when I do see your face, 
Therefore I think I am not in the night ■, 

220 Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company 
For you in my respect are all the world : 



SC. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT 1 S DREAM. 39 

Then how can it be said I am alone, 
When all the world is here to look on me? 

Dem. I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, 
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. 

Hel. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. 
Run when \ou will, the story shall be chang'd : 
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase ; 
The dove pursues the griffin ; the mild hind 
Makes speed to catch the tiger, — bootless speed, 230 
When cowardice pursues and valor flies! 

Dem. I will not stay thy questions ; let me go : 
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe 
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. 

Hel. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, 
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius! 
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex : 
We cannot fight for love, as men may do ; 
We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo, 

[Exit Demetrius. 
I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, 240 

To die upon the hand I love so well. [Exit. 

Obe. Fare thee well, nymph : ere he do leave this 
grove, 
Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love. — 

Re-enter Puck. 

Hast thou the flower there, welcome wanderer? 

Puck. Ay, here it is. 

Obe. I pray thee, give it me. 

I know a bank where the wild-thyme blows, 
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows ; 
Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, 



40 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act ii. 

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: 
J50 There sleeps Titania, sometime of the night, 
Lull'd in these bowers with dances and delight; 
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, 
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in : 
And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes, 
And make her full of hateful fantasies. 
Take thou some of it and seek through this grove: 
A sweet Athenian lady is in love 
With a disdainful youth : anoint his eyes ; 
But do it when the next thing he espies 
:6o May be the lady : thou shalt know the man 
By the Athenian garments he hath on. 
Effect it with some care that he may prove 
More fond on her than she upon her love : 
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. 
Puck. Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so. 

[Exeunt. 



SCENE II. Another part of the Wood. 
Enter Titania with her train. 

Tita. Come, now a roundel and a fairy song ; 
Then, 'fore the third part of a minute, hence ; 
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, 
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings 
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back 
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders 
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep ; 
Then to your offices and let me rest. 



sc. ii.] a MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 41 

Song. 

1. 

First Fairy. You spotted snakes with double tongue, 
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen ; 
Newts and blindworms, do no wrong, 
Come not near our fairy queen. 



Philomel, with melody 
Sing in our sweet lullaby ; 
Lulla, lulla, lullaby ; lulla, lulla, lullaby 
Never harm nor spell nor charm 
Come our lovely lady nigh ; 
So good-night, with lullaby ! 



Second Fairy. Weaving spiders, come not here ; 

Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence; 20 
Beetles black, approach not near ; 
Worm nor snail, do no offence. 

CHORUS. 

Philomel, with melody &c. 

Second Fairy. Hence, away ! now all is well : 
One aloof stand sentinel. 
{Exeunt Fairies. Titania sleeps. 

Enter Oberon. 

Gbe. What thou seest when thou dost wake, 

[Squeezes the flower on Titania's eyelids. 
Do it for thy true-love take ; 
Love and languish for his sake : 
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 



42 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act II. 

30 Pard, or boar with bristled hair, 

In thy eye that shall appear 
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear: 
Wake when some vile thing is near. [Exit. 

Enter Lysander and Hermia. 

Lys. Fair love, you faint with wandering in the 
wood : 
And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way : 
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, 
And tarry for the comfort of the day. 
Her. Be 't so, Lysander : find you out a bed ; 
For I upon this bank will rest my head. 
40 Lys. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both ; 
One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one 
troth. 
Her. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, 
Lie further off yet, do not lie so near. 

Lys. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence ! 
Love takes the meaning in love's conference. 
I mean that my heart unto yours is knit 
So that but one heart we can make of it ; 
Two bosoms interchained with an oath; 
So then two bosoms and a single troth. 
50 Then by your side no bed-room me deny ; 
For, lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. 

Her. Lysander riddles very prettily: 
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, 
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied. 
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy 
Lie further off; in human modesty, 
Such separation as may well be said 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 43 

Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid, 

So far be distant ; and, good night, sweet friend : 

Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end ! 60 

Lys. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I ; 
And then end life when I end loyalty! 
Here is my bed : sleep give thee all his rest ! 
Her. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be 
press'd ! [ They sleep. 

Enter Puck. 

Puck. Through the forest have I gone, 
But Athenian found I none 
On whose eyes I might approve 
This flower's force in stirring love. 
Night and silence ! who is here ? 
Weeds of Athens he doth wear: 70 

This is he my master said 
Despised the Athenian maid; 
And here the maiden, sleeping sound, 
On the dank and dirty ground. 
Pretty soul ! she durst not lie 
Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. 
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw 
All the power this charm doth owe. 

{Squeezes the flower on Lysander's 
eyelids. 
When thou wak'st, let love forbid 
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid : 80 

So awake when I am gone, 
For I must now to Oberon. {Exit. 

Enter Demetrius and Helena, running. 
Hel. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. 



44 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act n. 

Dem. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me 
thus. 

Hel. O, wilt thou darkling leave me ? do not so. 

Dem. Stay, on thy peril : I alone will go. [Exit. 

Hel. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase ! 
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. 
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies ; 
90 For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. 

How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears : 
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. 
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear ; 
For beasts that meet me run away for fear: 
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius 
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. 
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine 
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne? 
But who is here ? Lysander ! on the ground ! 
100 Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. 
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. 

Lys. \Awaking^\ And run through fire I will, for 
thy sweet sake. 
Transparent Helena ! Nature shows art, 
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. 
Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word 
Is that vile name to perish on my sword ! 

Hel. Do not say so, Lysander ; say not so. 
What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what 

though ? 
Yet Hermia still loves you : then be content, 
no Lys. Content with Hermia! No; I do repent 
The tedious minutes I with her have spent. 
Not Hermia but Helena I love : 
Who will not change a raven for a dove ? 



sc. II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 45 

The will of man is by his reason sway'd ; 

And reason says you are the worthier maid. 

Things growing are not ripe until their season : 

So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason ; 

And, touching now the point of human skill, 

Reason becomes the marshal to my will 

And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook 120 

Love's stories written in love's richest book. 

Hel, Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born ? 
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn ? 
Is 't not enough, is 't not enough, young man, 
That I did never, no, nor never can, 
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, 
But you must flout my insufficiency? 
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, 
In such disdainful manner me to woo. 
But fare you well : perforce I must confess 130 

I thought you lord of more true gentleness. 
O, that a lady, of one man refus'd, 
Should of another therefore be abus'd ! [Exit. 

Lys. She sees not Hermia. — Hermia, sleep thou 
there : 
And never may'st thou come Lysander near! 
For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things 
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings, 
Or as the heresies that men do leave 
Are hated most of those they did deceive, 
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, 140 

Of all be hated, but the most of me! 
And, all my powers, address your love and might 
To honor Helen and to be her knight ! 

Her. [Awaking.} Help me, Lysander, help me ! 
do thy best 



46 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act hi. 

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast ! 
Ah me, for pity ! — what a dream was here ! 
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear : 
Methought a serpent eat my heart away, 
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. 
$o Lysander ! what, remov'd ? Lysander ! lord ! — 
VVhat, out of hearing ? gone ? no sound, no word ? 
Alack, where are you ? speak, an if you hear ; 
Speak, of all loves ! I swoon almost with fear. 
No? — then I well perceive you are not nigh : 
Either death or you I'll find immediately. [Ext', 



ACT III. 
SCENE I. The same. Tit am a lying asleep. 

Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, 
and Starveling. 

Bot. Are we all met ? 

Quin. Pat, pat ; and here's a marvelous conven- 
ient place for our rehearsal. This green-plot shall 
be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our 'tiring-house ; 
and we will do it in action as we will do it before 
the duke. 

Bot. Peter Quince, — 

Quin. What say'st thou, bully Bottom ? 

Bot. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus 
oand Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus 
must draw a sword to kill himself ; which the ladies 
cannot abide. How answer you that ? 

Snout. By 'r lakin, a parlous fear. 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 47 

Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, 
when all is done. 

Bot. Not a whit : I have a device to make all 
well. Write me a prologue ; and let the prologue 
seem to say we will do no harm with our swords 
and thatPyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the 
more better assurance, tell them that I Pyramus 20 
am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver : this will 
put them out of fear. 

Quzn. Well, we will have such a prologue : and 
it shall be written in eight and six. 

Bot. No, make it two more ; let it be written in 
eight and eight. 

Snout. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion ? 

Star. I fear it, I promise you. 
- Bot. Masters, you ought to consider with your- 
selves : to bring in, — God shield us ! — a lion among 30 
ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a 
more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living; and 
we ought to look to it. 

Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he 
is not a lion. 

Bot. Nay, yo umust name his name, and half his 
face must be seen through the lion's neck ; and he 
himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the 
same defect, — " Ladies," — or, " Fair ladies, — I would 
wish you," — or, "I would requestyou," — or, "I would 40 
entreat you, — not to fear, not to tremble : my life 
for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it 
were pity of my life : no, I am no such thing ; I am 
a man as other men are : " — and there indeed let him 
name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug 
the joiner. 



48 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act III. 

Quin. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard 
things, that is, to bring the moonlight into a cham- 
ber; for, you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by 
50 moonlight. 

Snug. Doth the moon shine that night we play 
our play ? 

Bot. A calendar, a calendar ! look in the almanac ; 
find out moonshine, find out moonshine. 

Quin. Yes, it doth shine that night. 

Bot. Why, then you may leave a casement of the 
great chamber-window, where we play, open ; and 
the moon may shine in at the casement. 

Quin. Ay ; or else one must come in with a bush 
60 of thorns and a lantern, and say he comes to dis- 
figure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. 
Then there is another thing: we must have a wall 
in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, 
says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall. 

Snug. You never can bring in a wall. — What say 
you, Bottom ? 

Bot. Some man or other must present Wall ; and 

let him have some plaster or some loam or some 

rough-cast about him, to signify wall ; and let him 

70 hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall 

Pyramus and Thisby whisper. 

Quin. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit 
down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. 
Pyramus, you begin : when you have spoken your 
speech, enter into that brake ; — and so every one 
according to his cue, 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 49 
Enter Puck behind. 

Puck. What hempen home-spuns have we swag- 
gering here, 
So near the cradle of the fairy queen? 
What, a play toward ! I'll be an auditor ; 80 

An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause. 

Quin. Speak, Pyramus. — Thisby, stand forth. 
Pyr. Thisby, the flowers of odious savors sweet, — 

Quin. Odors, odors. 

Pyr. odors savors sweet : 

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. — 
But hark, a voice ! stay thou but here awhile. 

And by and by I will to thee appear. [Exit. 
Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here ! 

[Aside, ci7id exit. 
This. Must I speak now ? 9° 

Quin. Ay, marry, must you ; for you must under- 
stand he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and 
is to come again. 

This. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, 
Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier, 
Most briskly juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, 
As true as truest horse, that yet would never 
tire, 
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. 
Quin. Ninus' tomb, man : why, you must not 
speak that yet ; that you answer to Pyramus : you 100 
speak all your part at once, cues and all. — Pyramus, 
enter; your cue is past ; it is, " never tire." 

This. O, — As true as truest horse that yet would never 

tire. 
Pyr. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine ;— - 



50 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act hi. 

Re-enter Puck and BOTTOM with an ass's head. 

Quz'n. O monstrous ! O strange ! we are haunted. 
Pray, masters ! fly, masters ! Help ! {Exeunt. 

Puck. I'll follow you, I'll lead you 'bout a round, 
Through bog, through bush, through brake, 
through brier ; 
no Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, 
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a lire ; 
And neigh and bark and grunt and roar and burn, 
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. 

[Exit. 
Bot. Why do they run away ? this is knavery of 
them to make me afeard. 

Re-enter Snout. 

Snout. O Bottom, thou art changed ! what do I 
see on thee ? 

Bot. What do you see ? you see an ass-head of 
your own, do you ? [Exit Snout. 

Re-enter Quince. 

1 20 Quin. Bless thee, Bottom ! bless thee ! thou art 
translated. [Exit. 

Bot. I see their knavery : this is to make an ass 
of me ; to fright me, if they could. But I will not 
stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk 
up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall 
hear I am not afraid. [Sings. 

The ousel-cock, so black of hue, 

With orange-tawny bill, 
The throstle with his note so true, 
130 The wren with little quill, — 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 51 

Tita. [Awaking.] What angel wakes me from my 
flowery bed ? 

Bot. [Sings.] The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, 
The plain-song cuckoo gray, 
Whose note full many a man doth mark, 
And dares not answer nay ; — 
for indeed who would set his wit to so foolish a 
bird ? who would give a bird the lie, though he crv, 
" Cuckoo," never so ? 

Tita. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again : 140 

Mine ear is much enamor'd of thy note; 
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; 
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me 
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 

Bot. Methinks, mistress, you should have little 
reason for that : and yet, to say the truth, reason 
and love keep little company together nowadays; 
— the more the pity that some honest neighbors 
will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon 
occasion. 150 

Tita. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. 

Bot. Not so, neither : but, if I had wit enough to 
get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine 
own turn. 

Tita. Out of this wood do not desire to go : 
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. 
I am a spirit of no common rate ; 
The summer still doth tend upon my state, 
And I do love thee: therefore go with me ; 
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee ; 160 

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, 
And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep : 
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so 



52 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act ill. 

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. 
Peaseblossom ! Cobweb ! Moth ! and Mustardseed ! 

Enter the four Fairies. 

Peas. Ready. 

Cob. And I. 

Moth. And I. 

Mus. And I. 

All Four. Where shall we go ? 

Pita. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman ; 
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes ; 
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, 
170 With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries ; 
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, 
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, 
And light them at the fiery glowworm's eyes 
To have my love to bed and to arise ; 
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies 
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes : 
Nod to him elves, and do him courtesies. 

Peas. Hail, mortal ! 

Cob. Hail! 
180 Moth. Hail! 

Mus. Hail! 

Bot. I cry your worships mercy, heartily — I be- 
seech your worship's name. 

Cob. Cobweb. 

Bot. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, 
good Master Cobweb : if I cut my finger, I shall 
make bold with you. — Your name, honest gentle- 
man ? 

Peas. Peaseblossom. 
190 Bot. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 53 

your mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. 
Good Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of 
more acquaintance too. — Your name, I beseech you, 
sir? 

Mus. Mustardseed. 

Bot. Good Master Mustardseed, I know your 
patience well : that same cowardly, giant-like ox- 
beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your 
house: I promise you your kindred hath made my 
eyes water ere now. I desire you of more acquaint- 2 °° 
ance, good Master Mustardseed. 

Tita. Come, wait upon him ; lead him to my 
bower. 
The moon methinks looks with a watery eye ; 
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, 
Lamenting some enforced chastity, 
Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. 

[Exeunt. 

SCENE II. Another part of the Wood. 
Enter Oberon. 

Obe. I wonder if Titania be awak'd ; 
Then, what it was that next came in her eye, 
Which she must dote on in extremity. — 
Here comes my messenger. 

Enter Puck. 

How now, mad spirit ? 
What night-rule now about this haunted grove ? 

Puek. My mistress with a monster is in love. 
Near to her close and consecrated bower, 



54 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act hi. 

While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, 
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals, 

10 That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, 
Were met together to rehearse a play, 
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day. 
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort, 
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport 
Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake: 
When I did him at this advantage take, 
An ass's nowl I fixed on his head. 
Anon his Thisbe must be answered, 
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy, 

20 As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, 
Or russet-patted choughs, many in sort, 
Rising and cawing at the gun's report, 
Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky ; 
So, at his sight, away his fellows fly; 
And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls ; 
He murder cries and help from Athens calls. 
Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus 

strong, 
Made senseless things begin to do them wrong; 
For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch, — 

30 Some sleeves,— some, hats ; — from yielders all things 
catch. 
I led them on in this distracted fear, 
And left sweet Pyramus translated there: 
When in that moment (so it came to pass), 
Titania wak'd and straightway lov'd an ass. 

Obe. This falls out better than I could devise. 
But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes 
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? 

Puck. I took him sleeping — that is finish'd too — 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 55 

And the Athenian woman by his side ; 

That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd. 40 

Enter Demetrius and Hermia. 

Obe. Stand close ; this is the same Athenian. 

Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. 

Dem. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so ? 
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. 

Her. Now I but chide; but I should use thee 
worse, 
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. 
If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, 
Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, 
And kill me too. 

The sun was not so true unto the day 50 

As he to me : would he have stol'n away 
From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon 
This whole earth may be bor'd ; and that the moon 
May through the center creep, and so displease 
Her brother's noontide with th' antipodes. 
It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him ; 
So should a murderer look, -so dread, so grim. 

Dem. So should the murder'd look ; and so 
should I, 
Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty : 
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, 60 

As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. 

Her. What's this to my Lysander? where is he? 
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me? 

Dem. I'd rather give his carcass to my hounds. 

Her. Out, dog! out, cur! thou driv'st me past 
the bounds 



56 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM [act in. 

Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him then ? 
Henceforth be never number'd among men ! 
O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake . 
Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake, 
70 And hast thou kill'd him sleeping ? O brave touch ! 
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much ? 
An adder did it; for with donbler tongue 
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. 

Dem. You spend your passion on a mispris'd 
mood : 
I am not guilty of Lysander's blood ; 
Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. 

Her. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. 
Don. An if I could, what should I get therefor? 
Her. A privilege never to see me more. 
80 And from thy hated presence part I so : 

See me no more, whether he be dead or no. [Exit. 
Dem. There is no following her in this fierce 
vein : 
Here therefore for a while I will remain. 
So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow 
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe ; 
Which now in some slight measure it will pay, 
If for his tender here I make some stay. 

[Lies down and sleeps. 
Obe. What hast thou done ? thou hast mistaken 
quite, 
And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight: 
90 Of thy misprision must perforce ensue 

Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true. 
Puck. Then fate o'errules ; that, one man holding 
troth, 
A million fail, confounding oath on oath. 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 57 

Obe. About the wood go swifter than the wind, 
And Helena of Athens look thou find : 
All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer 
With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear: 
By some illusion see thou bring her here : 
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear. 

Puck. I go, I go; look, how I go, 100 

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. [Exit. 
Obe. Flower of this purple dye, 
Hit with Cupid's archery, 
[Squeezes the flower 071 Demetrius' eyelids. 
Sink in apple of his eye ! 
When his love he doth espy, 
Let her shine as gloriously 
As the Venus of the sky. 
When thou wak'st, if she be by, 
Beg of her for remedy. 

Re-enter PUCK. 

Puck. Captain of our fairy band, 1 10 

Helena is here at hand ; 

And the youth, mistook by me, 

Pleading for a lover's fee. 

Shall we their fond pageant see ? 

Lord, what fools these mortals be ! 
Obe. Stand aside : the noise they make 

Will cause Demetrius to awake. 
Puck. Then will two at once woo one, — 

That must needs be sport alone ; 

And those things do best please me 120 

That befall preposterously. 



58 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT S DREAM, [act in. 

Re-enter Lysander and Helena. 

Lys. Why should you think that I should woo in 
scorn ? 
Scorn and derision never come in tears : 
Look, when I vow, I weep ; and vows so born, 

In their nativity all truth appears. 
How can these things in me seem scorn to you. 
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true ? 
Hel. You do advance your cunning more and 
more. 
When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray ! 
130 These vows are Hermia's : will you give her o'er? 
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing 
weigh : 
Your vows to her and me put in two scales 
Will even weigh ; and both as light as tales. 
Lys. I had no judgment when to her I swore. 
Hel. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her 

o'er. 
Lys. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. 
Dem. {awaking.} O Helen, goddess, nymph, per- 
fect, divine ! 
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne ? 
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show 
140 Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow ! 
That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, 
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow, 
When thou hold'st up thy hand : O let me kiss 
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss ! 
Hel. O spite ! O hell ! I see you all are bent 
To set against me for your merriment : 
If you were civil and knew courtesy. 
You would not do me thus much injury. 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 59 

Can you not hate me, as I know you do, 

But you must join in souls to mock me too ? 150 

If you were men, as men you are in show, 

You would not use a gentle lady so ; 

To vow and swear, and superpraise my parts, 

When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. 

You both are rivals and love Hermia ; 

And now both rivals, to mock Helena: 

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise, 

To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes 

With your derision ! none of noble sort 

Would so offend a virgin, and extort 160 

A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. 

Lys. You are unkind, Demetrius ; be not so ; 
For you love Hermia ; this you know I know : 
And here, with all good-will, with all my heart, 
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part; 
And yours of Helena to me bequeath, 
Whom I do love and will do to my death. 

Hel. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. 

Dem. Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none : 
If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone. 170 

My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd, 
And now to Helen is it home return'd, 
There to remain. 

Lys. Helen, it is not so. 

Devi. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, 
Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear. 
Look where thy love comes ; yonder is thy dear. 

Enter Hermia. 
Her. Dark night, that from the eye his function 
takes, 



60 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act III. 

The ear more quick of apprehension makes; 
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, 
1 80 It pays the hearing double recompense. 

Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found ; 
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. 
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so ? 
Lys. Why should he stay, whom love doth press 

to go ? 
Her. What love could press Lysander from my 

side ? 
Lys. Lysander's love, that would not let him 
bide, — 
Fair Helena ; who more engilds the night 
Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light. 
Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee 
know 
190 The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so? 

Her. You speak not as you think : it cannot be. 
Hel. Lo, she is one of this confederacy ! 
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three 
To fashion this false sport in spite of me. 
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid! 
Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd 
To bait me with this foul derision ? 
Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, 
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, 
200 When we have chid the hasty-footed time 
For parting us, — O, is it all forgot ? 
All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence ? 
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, 
Have with our needles created both one flower, 
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, 
Both warbling of one song, both in one key; 



sc. II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT: S DREAM. 61 

As if our hands, our sides, voices, and mindb 

Had been incorp'rate. So we grew together, 

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted ; 

But yetaunion in partition, 210 

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem ; 

So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart ; 

Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, 

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. 

And will you rent our ancient love asunder 

To join with men in scorning your poor friend ? 

It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly: 

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for 't, 

Though I alone do feel the injury. 

Her. I am amazed at your passionate words. 220 

I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me. 

Hel. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, 
To follow me and praise my eyes and face ? 
And made your other love, Demetrius, 
Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, 
To call me goddess, nvmph, divine, and rare, 
Precious, celestial ? Wherefore speaks he this 
To her he hates ? and wherefore doth Lysander 
Deny your love, so rich within his soul, 
And tender me, forsooth, affection, 230 

But by your setting on, by your consent ? 
What though I be not so in grace as you, 
So hung upon with love, so fortunate ; 
But miserable most to love unlov'd ? 
This you should pity rather than despise. 

Her. I understand not what you mean by this. 

Hel. Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks, 
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back ; 
Wink at each other ; hold the sweet jest up : 



62 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act hi. 

240 This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. 
If you have any pity, grace, or manners, 
You would not make me such an argument. 
But fare ye well : 't is partly mine own fault ; 
Which death or absence soon shall remedy. 

Lys. Stay, gentle Helena ; hear my excuse : 
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena! 
Hel. O excellent ! 

Her. Sweet, do not scorn her so. 

Dem. If she cannot entreat, I can compel. 
Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she en- 
treat : 
250 Thy threats have no more strength than her weak 
prayers. 
Helen, I love thee ; bv my life I do : 
I swear by that which I will lose for thee, 
To prove him false that says I love thee not. 
Dem. I say I love thee more than he can do. 
Lys. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. 
Dem. Quick, come ! 

Her. Lysander, whereto tends all this ? 

Lys. Away, you Ethiop ! 

Dem. No, no, sir : — he will 

Seem to break loose ; take on as you would follow, 
But yet come not : You are a tame man, go ! 
260 Lys. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr ! vile thing, 
let loose ; 
Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent ! 

Her. Why are you grown so rude ? what change 
is this, 
Sweet love ? 

Lys. Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out! 

Out, loathed medicine! O hated potion, hence! 



SC. II.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 63 

Her. Do you not jest ? 

Hel. Yes, sooth ; and so do you. 

Lys. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. 

Devi. I would I had your bond, for I perceive 
A weak bond holds you : I'll not trust your word. 

Lys. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her 
dead ? 
Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. 270 

Her. What, can you do me greater harm than 
hate ? 
Hate me ! wherefore ? O me ! what news, my love ? 
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander ? 
I am as fair now as I was erewhile. 
Since night you lov'd me ; yet since night you left 

me : 
Why, then you left me, — O, the gods forbid ! — 
In earnest, shall I say? 

Lys. Ay, by my life ; 

And never did desire to see thee more. 
Therefore be out of hope, of question, doubt ; 
Be certain, nothing truer; 't is no jest 280 

That I do hate thee and love Helena. 

Her. O me! you juggler; you canker-blossom ! 
You thief of love ! what, have you come by night 
And stol'n my love's heart from him? 

Hel. Fine, i' faith ! 

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, 
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear 
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue ? 
Fie, fie ! you counterfeit, you puppet, you ! 

Her. Puppet ! why so ? ay, that way goes the 
game. 
Now I perceive that she hath made compare 290 



64 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act in. 

Between our statures ; she hath urg'd her height ; 

And with her personage, her tall personage, 

Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'dwith him. — 

And are you grown so high in his esteem, 

Because I am so dwarfish and so low ? 

How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak ; 

How low am I ? I am not yet so low 

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. 

Hel. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, 
300 Let her not hurt me : I was never curst ; 
I have no gift at all in shrewishness ; 
I am a right maid for my cowardice : 
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, 
Because she's something lower than myself, 
That I can match her. 

Her. Lower ! hark, again. 

Hel. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. 
I evermore did love you. Hermia, 
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you ; 
Save that, in love unto Demetrius, 
310 I told him of your stealth unto this wood : 
He follow'd you ; for love I follow'd him ; 
But he hath chid me hence, and threaten'd me 
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too : 
And now, so you will let me quiet go, 
To Athens will I bear my folly back 
And follow you no further : let me go : 
You see how simple and how fond I am. 

Her. Why, get you gone : who is't that hinders 
you ? 

Hel. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. 

Her. What, with Lysander ? 
320 Hel. With Demetrius. 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 65 

Lys. Be not afraid ; she shall not harm thee, 
Helena. 

Dem. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her 
part. 

Hel. O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd ! 
She was a vixen when she went to school ; 
And, though she be but little, she is fierce. 

Her. Little again ! nothing but low and little ! 
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ? 
Let me come to her. 

Lys. Get you gone, you dwarf; 

You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made ; 
You bead, you acorn ! 

Dem. You are too officious 330 

In her behalf that scorns your services. 
Let her alone : speak not of Helena ; 
Take not her part ; for, if thou dost intend 
Never so little show of love to her, 
Thou shalt aby it. 

Lys. Now she holds me not ; 

Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right, 
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena. 

Dem. Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by 
jole. [Exeunt Lysander and Demetrius. 

Her. You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you : 
Nay, go not back. 

Hel. I will not trust you, I, 340 

Nor longer stay in your curst company. 
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray ; 
My legs are longer, though, to run away. [Exit. 

Her. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say. 

{Exit. 



66 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, [act hi. 

Obe. This is thy negligence : still thou mistak'st, 
Or else commit'st thy knaveries willfully. 

Puck. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. 
Did not you tell me I should know the man 
By the Athenian garments he had on ? 

350 And so far blameless proves my enterprise, 
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes; 
And so far am I glad it so did sort 
As this their jangling I esteem a sport. 

Obe. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to 
fight: 
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night; 
The starry welkin cover thou anon 
With drooping fog as black as Acheron ; 
And lead these testy rivals so astray 
As one come not within another's way. 

360 Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, 
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong ; 
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius; 
And from each other look thou lead them thus, 
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep 
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep : 
Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye ; 
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, 
To take from thence all error with his might, 
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. 

370 When they next wake, all this derision 
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision , 
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend, 
With league whose date till death shall never end. 
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, 
I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy; 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 67 

And then I will her charmed eye release 
From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. 
Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with 
haste, 
For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, 
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger ; 380 

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and 

there, 
Troop home to churchyards : damned spirits all, 
That in crossways and floods have burial, 
Already to their wormy beds are gone ; 
For fear lest day should look their shames upon, 
They willfully themselves exile from light 
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night. 

Obe. But we are spirits of another sort : 
I with the Morning's love have oft made sport; 
And, like a forester, the groves may tread, 390 

Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red, 
Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams, 
Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams. 
But, notwithstanding, haste ; make no delay : 
We may effect this business yet ere day. 

{Exit Oberon. 
Puck. Up and down, up and down, 

I will lead them up and down : 
I am fear'd in field and town : 
Goblin, lead them up and down. 
Here comes one. 400 

Re-enter Lysander. 

Lys. Where art thou, proud Demetrius ? speak 
thou now. 



68 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act hi. 

Puck. Here, villain ; drawn and ready. Where 

art thou ? 
Lys. I will be with thee straight. 
Puck. Follow me then 

To plainer ground. 

{Exit Lysander as following the voice. 

Re-enter DEMETRIUS. 

Dem. Lysander ! speak again : 

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled ? 
Speak ! In some bush ? Where dost thou hide thy 
head ? 
Puck. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the 
stars, 
Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, 
And wilt not come ? Come, recreant ; come, thou 
child; 
410 I'll whip thee with a rod : he is defil'd 
That draws a sword on thee. 

Dem. Yea, art thou there ? 

Puck. Follow my voice : we'll try no manhood 
here. [Exeunt. 

Re-enter Lysander. 

Lys. He goes before me, and still dares me on : 
When I come where he calls, then he is gone. 
The villain is much iighter-heel'd than I : 
I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly ; 
That fallen am I in dark, uneven way, 
And here will rest me. Come, thou gentle day ! 

[Lies down. 
For if but once thou show me thy gray light, 
420 I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite. [Sleeps. 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 69 

Re-e?iter Puck and DEMETRIUS. 

Puck. Ho, ho, ho ! Coward, why com'st thou 

not? 
Dem. Abide me, if thou dar'st ; for well I wot 
Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place, 
A*nd dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. 
Where art thou now ? 
Puck. Come hither : I am here. 

Dem. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt 
buy this dear, 
If ever I thy face by daylight see: 
Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me 
To measure out my length on this cold bed. 
By day's approach look to be visited. 430 

[Lies doivn and sleeps. 

Re-enter Helena. 

Hel. O weary night, O long and tedious night, 
Abate thy hours ! Shine comforts from the east, 
That I may back to Athens by daylight, 
From these that my poor company detest : 
And, sleep, that sometimes shuts my sorrow's eye, 
Steal me a while from mine own company. 

{Lies down and sleeps. 
Puck. Yet but three ? Come one more ; 
Two of both kinds make up four. 
Here she comes, curst and sad : 
Cupid is a knavish lad 440 

Thus to make poor females mad. 

Re-enter Hermia. 
Her. Never so weary, never so in woe ; 



70 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act iv. 

Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers ; 
I can no farther crawl, no farther go ; 

My legs can keep no pace with my desires. 
Here will I rest me till the break of day. 
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! 

[Lies down and sleeps. 
Puck. On the ground 

Sleep sound : 
45° I'll apply 

To your eye, 
Gentle lover, remedy. 
[Squeezing the herb on LYSANDER's eyelids. 
When thou wak'st, 
Thou tak'st 
True delight 
In the sight 
Of thy former lady's eye : 
And the country proverb known, 
That every man should take his own, 
460 In your waking shall be shown : 
Jack shall have Jill; 
Nought shall go ill ; 
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be 
well. [Exit. 

ACT IV. 

SCENE I. The Wood. Lysander, Demetrius, 
Helena, and Hermia tying asleep. 

Enter Titania and Bottom, Fairies attending ; 
Oberon behind, unseen. 

Tita. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. Ji 

And stick musk-roses in thy sleek, smooth head, 
And kiss thy fair, large ears, my gentle joy. 

Bot. Where's Peaseblossom ? 

Peas. Ready. 

Bot. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. — Where's 
Monsieur Cobweb? 

Cob. Ready. 

Bot. Monsieur Cobweb, good monsieur, get your 10 
weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped 
bumble- bee on the top of a thistle ; and, good mon- 
sieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret your- 
self too much in the action, monsieur; and, good 
monsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not ; 
I would be loth to have you overflown with a honey- 
bag, signior. — Where's Monsieur Mustardseed ? 

Must. Ready. 

Bot. Give me your neaf, Monsieur Mustardseed. 
Pray you leave your courtesy, good monsieur. 20 

Must. What's your will ? 

Bot. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery 
Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mon- 
sieur ; for methinks I am marvelous hairy about 
the face ; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do 
but tickle me, I must scratch. 

Tita. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet 
love ? 

Bot. I have a reasonable good ear in music : let 
us have the tongs and the bones. 30 

Tita. Or say, sweet love, what thou desir'st to 
eat. 

Bot. Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch 
your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire 



72 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT S DREAM, [act iv. 

to a bottle of hay : good hay, sweet hay, hath no 
fellow. 

Tita. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek 
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. 
Bot. I had rather have a handful or two of dried 
40 peas. But, I pray you, let none of your people stir 
me : I have an exposition of sleep come upon me. 
Tita. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my 
arms. 
Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. 

{Exeunt Fairies. 
So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 
Gently entwist ; the female ivy so 
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 
O, how I love thee ! how I dote on thee ! 

{They sleep. 

Oberon advances. Enter Puck. 

Obe. Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this 
sweet sight ? 
Her dotage now I do begin to pity : 

50 For, meeting her of late behind the wood, 
Seeking sweet favors for this hateful fool, 
I did upbraid her and fall out with her; 
For she his hairy temples then had rounded 
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers ; 
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds 
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls, 
Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes 
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. 
When I had at my pleasure taunted her, 

60 And she in mild terms begg'd my patience, 
I then did ask of her her changeling child ; 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 73 

Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent 
To bear him to my bower in fairy land. 
And now I have the boy, I will undo 
This hateful imperfection of her eyes : 
And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp 
From off the head of this Athenian swain ; 
That, he awaking when the other do, 
May all to Athens back again repair, 
And think no more of this night's accidents 7° 

But as the fierce vexation of a dream. 
But first I will release the fairy queen. 
Be as thou wast wont to be ; 

[ Touching her eyes with an herb. 
See as thou wast wont to see : 
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 
Hath such force and blessed power. 
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen. 

Tita. My Oberon ! what visions have I seen ! 
Methought I was enamor'd of an ass. 
Obe. There lies your love. 

Tita. How came these things to pass ? 80 

O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now ! 

Obe. Silence a while. Robin, take off this head. 
Titania, music call ; and strike more dead 
Than common sleep of all these five the sense. 
Tita. Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep. 
Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own 

fool's eyes peep. 
Obe. Sound, music. [Still music.] — Come, my 
queen, take hands with me, 
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. 
Now thou and I are new in amity, 
And will to-morrow midnight solemnly 90 



74 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM, [act iv. 

Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly 
And bless it to all fair posterity : 
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be 
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. 
Puck. Fairy king, attend and mark : 

I do hear the morning lark. 
Ode. Then, my queen, in silence sad, 
Trip we after the night's shade : 
We the globe can compass soon, 
ioo Swifter than the wand'ring moon. 

Tita. Come, my lord ; and in our flight 
Tell me how it came this night 
That I sleeping here was found 
With these mortals on the ground. 

[Exeunt. Horns winded within. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train. 

The. Go, one of you, find out the forester ; 
For now our observation is perform'd ; 
And since we have the vaward of the day, 
My love shall hear the music of my hounds : 
Uncouple in the western valley ; let them go : 
no Despatch, I say, and find the forester. — 

[Exit an Attendant. 
We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, 
And mark the musical confusion 
Of hounds and echo in conjunction. 

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, 
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 
With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear 
Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, 
The skies, the fountains, every region near 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 75 

Seem'd all one mutual cry : I never heard 

So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 120 

The. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 
So flew'd, so sanded ; and their heads are hung 
With ears that sweep away the morning-dew; 
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls: 
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 
Each under each. A cry more tunable 
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, 
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly : 
Judge, when you hear. — But, soft ! what nymphs 
are these ? 

Ege. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep ; 130 
And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is ; 
This Helena, old Nedar's Helena : 
I wonder of their being here together. 

The. No doubt they rose up early to observe 
The rite of May ; and, hearing our intent, 
Came here in grace of our solemnity. — 
But speak, Egeus ; is not this the day 
That Hermia should give answer of her choice ? 

Ege. It is, my lord. 

The. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their 140 
horns. {Exit Attendant. 

Horns and shout within. Demetrius, Lysander, 
Hermia, and Helena awake a?id start up. 
The. Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is 
past : 
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now ? 
Lys. Pardon, my lord. 

[He and the rest kneel to THESEUS. 



76 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act iv. 

The. I pray you all, stand up. 

I know you two are rival enemies : 

How comes this gentle concord in the world, 

That hatred is so far from jealousy, 

To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity ? 
Lys. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, 

Half 'sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear 
150 I cannot truly say how I came here : 

But, as I think, — for truly would I speak, 

And now I do bethink me, so it is — 

I came with Hermia hither : our intent 

Was to be gone from Athens, where we might, 

Without the peril of the Athenian law, 

Ege. Enough, enough, my lord ; you have enough : 

I beg the law, the law upon his head. 

They would have stol'n away ; they would, Deme- 
trius, 

Thereby to have defeated you and me, 
160 You of your wife, and me of my consent, 

Of my consent that she should be your wife. 

Dem. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, 

Of this their purpose hither to this wood ; 

And I in fury hither follow'd them, 

Fair Helena in fancy following me. 

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power — 

But by some power it is — my love to Hermia, 

Melted as the snow, seems to me now 

As the remembrance of an idle gawd 
170 Which in my childhood I did dote upon ; 

And all the faith, the virtue of my heart, 

The object and the pleasure of mine eye, 

Is only Helena. To her, my lord, 

Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia : 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 77 

But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food : 
But, as in health, come to my natural taste, 
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it, 
And will for evermore be true to it. 

The. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met : 
Of this discourse we more will hear anon. 180 

Egeus, I will overbear your will ; 
For in the temple, by and by, with us 
These couples shall eternally be knit : 
And, for the morning now is something worn, 
Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside. 
Away with us to Athens ! three and three, 
We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. — 
Come, Hippolyta. 

[Exeunt Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, 
and train. 

Dem. These things seem small and undistin- 
guishable, 
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. 190 

Her. Methinks I see these things with parted 
eye, 
When everything seems double. 

Hel. So methinks: 

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, 
Mine own, and not mine own. 

Dem. Are you sure 

That we are yet awake ? It seems to me 
That yet we sleep, we dream. — Do not you think 
The duke was here, and bid us follow him ? 

Her. Yea ; and my father. 

Hel. And Hippolyta. 

Lys. And he did bid us follow to the temple. 



7S A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act iv. 

200 Bern. Why then we are awake ; let's follow him ; 
And by the way let us recount our dreams. 

[Exeunt. 
Bot. {Awaking .] When my cue comes, call me, 
and I will answer : — my next is, " Most fair Pyra- 
mus." — Heigh-ho! — Peter Quince! Flute, the bel- 
lows-mender ! Snout, the tinker ! Starveling ! — 
God's my life ! stolen hence and left me asleep; I 
have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, 
— past the wit of man to say what dream it was : 
man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this 

210 dream. Methought I was — there is no man can 
tell what. Methought I was, and methought 1 had, 
— but man is but a patched fool, if he will offer to 
say what methought I had. I will get Peter Quince 
to write a ballad of this dream : it shall be called 
Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom ; and 
I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the 
duke : peradventure, to make it the more gracious, 
I shall sing it at her death. [Exit. 

SCENE II. — Athens. A Room in Quince's House. 

Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 

Quin. Have you sent to Bottom's house ? is he 
come home yet? 

Star. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he 
is transported. 

Flu. If he come not, then the play is marred ; it 
goes not forward, doth it ? 

Quin. It is not possible : you have not a man in 
all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he. 



sc. ii.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 79 

Flu. No, he hath simply the best wit of any 
handicraft-man in Athens. 10 

Quin. Yea, and the best person too ; and he is a 
very paramour for a sweet voice. 

Flu. You must say paragon : a paramour is, God 
bless us, a thing of naught. 

Enter Snug. 

Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the tem- 
ple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more 
married : if our sport had gone forward, we had all 
been made men. 

Flu. O sweet bully Bottom ! Thus hath he lost 
sixpence a day during his life ; he could not have 20 
'scaped sixpence a day : an the duke had not given 
him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be 
hanged ; he would have deserved it : sixpence a 
day in Pyramus, or nothing. 

Enter Bottom. 

Bot. Where are these lads ? where are these 
hearts ? 

Quin. Bottom ! O most courageous day ! O 
most happy hour ! 

Bot. Masters, I am to discourse wonders : but ask 
me not what ; for, if I tell you, I am no true Athe- 30 
nian. I will tell you everything, right as it fell out. 

Quin. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. 

Bot. Not a word of me. All that 1 will tell you 
is, that the duke hath dined. Get your apparel to- 
gether, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to 
your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every 
man look o'er his part ; for, the short and the long 



80 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act v. 

is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby 
have clean linen ; and let not him that plays the 
40 Hon pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the 
lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions 
nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath ; and I 
do not doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet 
comedy. No more words : away ! go ; away ! 

[Exeunt. 



ACT V. 

SCENE I. Athens. An Apartment in the Palace 
of Theseus. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, 
Lords, and Attendants. 

Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers 

speak of. 
The. More strange than true : I never may be- 
lieve 
These antique fables nor these fairy toys. 
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 
More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact : — 
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, 
10 That is, the madman : the lover, all as frantic, 
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt : 
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to 
heaven ; 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 81 

And, as imagination bodies forth 

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 

A local habitation and a name. v ' 

Such tricks hath strong imagination 

That, if it would but apprehend some joy, 

It comprehends some bringer of that joy ; 20 

Or in the night, imagining some fear, 

How easy is a bush supposed a bear ! 

Hip. But all the story of the night told over, 
And all their minds transfigur'd so together, 
More witnesseth than fancy's images, 
And grows to something of great constancy ; 
3ut, howsoever, strange and admirable. 

The. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. 

Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, 
and Helena. 

Joy, gentle friends ! joy, and fresh days of love 
Accompany your hearts ! 30 

Lys. More than to us 

Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed ! 

The. Come now ; what masques, what dances 
shall we have 
To wear away this long age of three hours 
Between our after-supper and bedtime ? 
Where is our usual manager of mirth ? 
What revels are in hand ? Is there no play 
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? 
Call Philostrate. 

Pkzlost. Here, mighty Theseus. 40 

The. Say, what abridgment have you for this 
evening ? 



82 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM, [act v. 

What masque? what music? How shall we beguile 
The lazy time, if not with some delight ? 

Philost. There is a brief how many sports are 
ripe : 
Make choice of which your highness will see first. 

{Giving a paper. 
The. [Reads] " The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung 
By an Athenian eunuch to the harp." 
We'll none of that : that have I told my love, 
In glory of my kinsman Hercules. 
5° " The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals 

Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage." 

That is an old device ; and it was play'd 
When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. 

" The thrice three Muses mourning for the death 
Of Learning, late deceas'd in beggary." 
That is some satire, keen and critical, 
Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. 

" A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus, 
And his love Thisbe ; very tragical mirth." 
60 Merry and tragical ! tedious and brief ! 

That is, hot ice and wonderous strange snow. 
How shall we find the concord of this discord ? 
Philost. A play there is, my lord, some ten words 
long, 
Which is as brief as I have known a play; 
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, 
Which makes it tedious ; for in all the play 
There is not one word apt, one player fitted : 
And tragical, my noble lord, it is ; 
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself. 
70 Which, when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, 
Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears 



sc.l.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 83 

The passion of loud laughter never shed. 

The. What are they that do play it ? 

Philost. Hard-handed men that work in Athens 
here, 
Which never labor'd in their minds till now; 
And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories 
With this same play, against your nuptial. 

The. And we will hear it. 

Philost. No, my noble lord ; 

It is not for you : I have heard it over, 80 

And it is nothing, nothing in the world ; 
Unless you can find sport in their intents, 
Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, 
To do you service. 

The. I will hear that play ; 

For never anything can be amiss, 
When simpleness and duty tender it. 
Go, bring them in : and take your places, ladies. 

[Exit Philostrate. 

Hip. I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharg'd, 
And duty in his service perishing. 90 

The. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such 
thing. 

Hip. He says they can do nothing in this kind. 

The. The kinder we, to give them thanks for 
nothing. 
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake : 
And what poor duty cannot do, but would, 
Noble respect takes it in might, not merit. 
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed 
To greet me with premeditated welcomes; 
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, 
Make periods in the midst of sentences. 100 



84 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DRE AM. [act v. 

Throttle their practic'd accent in their fears, 
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off, 
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet, 
. Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome ; 
And in the modesty of fearful duty 
I read as much as from the rattling tongue 
Of saucy and audacious eloquence. 
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity 
In least speak most, to my capacity. 

Enter Philostrate. 

no Philost. So please your grace, the Prologue is 
address'd. 

The. Let him approach. {Flourish of Trumpets. 

Enter Quince for the Prologue. 
Prol. If we offend , it is with our good-will. 

That you should think, we come not to offend, 
But with good-will. To show our simple skill, 

That is the true beginning of our end. 
Consider then we come but in despite. 

We do not come as minding to content you, 
Our true intent is. All for your delight 

We are not here. That you should here re- 
pent you, 
1 20 The actors are at hand, and by their show 

You shall know all that you are like to know. 
The. This fellow doth not stand upon points. 
Lys. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt ; 
he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord : 
It is not enough to speak, but to speak true. 

Hip. Indeed he hath played on this prologue 
like a child on a recorder ; a sound, but not in gov- 
ernment. 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 85 

The. His speech was like a tangled chain ; noth- 
ing impaired, but all disordered. Who is next ? 130 

Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine. 
and Lion, as in dumb show. 

Prol. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show ; 

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. 
This man is Pyramus, if you would know ; 

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain. 
This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present 

Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers 
sunder ; 
And through wall's chink, poor souls, they are 
content 

To whisper ; at the which let no man wonder. 
This man, with lantern, dog, and bush of thorn, 

Presenteth Moonshine ; for, if you will know, 14° 
By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn 

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. 
This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name, 
The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, 
Did scare away, or rather did affright ; 
And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, 

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. 
Anon comes Pyramus sweet youth and tall, 

And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain : 
Whereat with blade, with bloody, blameful blade, 150 

He bravely broach'd his boiling, bloody breast; 
And, Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade, 

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, 
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain 
At large discourse, while here they do remain. 

{Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moon- 
shine. 
The. I wonder if the lion be to speak. 



36 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. [act v. 

Dem. No wonder, my lord : one lion may, when 
many asses do. 

Wall. In this same interlude it doth befall 

That I, one Snout by name, present a wall ; 
1 60 And such a wall, as I would have you think, 

That had in it a crannied hole or chink, 
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, 
Did whisper often very secretly. 
This lime, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth 

show 
That I am that same wall ; the truth is so : 
And this the cranny is, right and sinister, 
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper. 

The. Would you desire lime and hair to speak 
better ? 
170 Devi. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard 
discourse, my lord. 

The. Pyramus draws near the wall : silence ! 

Enter PYRAMUS. 
Pyr. O grim-look'd night ! O night with hue so black ! 

night, which ever art when day is not ! 
O night, O night ! alack, alack, alack, 

1 fear my Thisby's promise is forgot ! — 
And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall, 

That stand'st between her father's ground and 

mine ! 
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall, 
180 Show me thy chink, to blink through with 

mine eyne ! [Wall holds up his fingers. 
Thanks, courteous wall ! Jove shield thee well 

for this ! 
But what see I ? No Thisby do I see. 
O' wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss ! 
Curs'd be thy stones for thus deceiving me ! 



sc. i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT' S DREAM. 87 

The. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should 
curse again. 

Pyr. No, in truth, sir, he should not. " Deceiv- 
ing me" is Thisby's cue : she is to enter now, and I 
am to spy her through the wall. You shall see, it 
will fall pat as I told you.— Yonder she comes. 19° 

Enter This BE. 

This. O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans, 
For parting my fair Pyramus and me ! 
My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones, 
Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. 
Pyr. I see a voice : now will I to the chink 

To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. 
Thisby ! 
This. My love ! thou art my love, I think. 

Pyr. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lovers grace; 

And like Limander am I trusty still. 200 

This. And I like Helen, till the fates me kill. 
Pyr. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true. 
This. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you. 
Pyr. O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall ! 
This. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all. 
Pyr. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway ? 
This. 'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay. 
Wall. Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so ; 
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. 

[Exeunt Wall. Pyramus, and Thisbe. 
The. Now is the mural down between the two 210 
neighbors. 

Dem. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so will- 
ful to hear without warning. 

Hip. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. 



83 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act v. 

The. The best in this kind are but shadows; and 
the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. 

Hip. It must be your imagination then, and not 
theirs. 

The. If we imagine no worse of them than they 

220 of themselves, they may pass for excellent men. 

Here come two noble beasts in, a moon and a lion. 

Enter Lion and Moonshine. 

Lion. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear 

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on 
floor, 
May now perchance both quake and tremble 
here, 
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar„ 
Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am 
A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam ; 
For, if I should as lion come in strife 
Into this place, 't were pity of my life. 
230 The. A very gentle beast, and of a good con- 
science. 

Dem. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er 
I saw. 
Lys. This lion is a very fox for his valor. 
The. True ; and a goose for his discretion. 
Dem. Not so, my lord ; for his valor cannot carry 
his discretion ; and the fox carries the goose. 

The. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his 
valor; for the goose carries not the fox. It is 
240 well : leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to 
the moon. 

Moon. This lantern doth the horned moon present ; — 
Dem. He should have worn the horns on his head. 



sc. I.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 89 

The. He is no crescent, and his horns are invis- 
ible within the circumference. 

Moon. This lantern doth the horned moon present ; 
Myself the man i' th' moon do seem to be. 

The. This is the greatest error of all the rest: 
the man should be put into the lantern. How is it 
else the man i' the moon ? 250 

Dem. He dares not come there for the candle ; 
for, you see. it is already in snuff. 

Hip. I am aweary of this moon : would he would 
change ! 

The. It appears, by his small light of discretion, 
that he is in the wane : but yet, in courtesy, in all 
reason, we must stay the time. 

Lys. Proceed, Moon. 

Moon. All that I have to say is to tell you that 
the lantern is the moon ; I, the man in the moon ; 260 
this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush ; and this clog, my 
dog. 

Dem. Why, all these should be in the lantern, 
for they are in the moon. But silence ! here comes 
Thisbe. 

Enter THISBE. 

This. This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love ? 
Lion. [Roars] Oh— ' [Thisbe runs off. 

Dem. Well roared, Lion. 
The. Well run, Thisbe. 

Hip. Well shone, Moon. — Truly, the moon shines 270 
with a good grace. 

[The Lion tears Thisbe's mantle, and exit. 
The. Well moused, Lion. 
Dem. And then came Py ramus. 



90 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act v. 

Lys. And so the lion vanished. 
Enter Pyramus. 

Pyr. Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams ; 
I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright ; 
For, by ihy gracious, golden, glittering gleams, 
I trust to take of truest Thisby sight. 
But stay, — O spite ! — 
But mark, poor knight, 
280 What dreadful dole is here ! 

Eyes, do you see ? 
H ovv can it be ? 
O dainty duck ! O dear ! 
Thy mantle good, 
What, stain'd with blood ? 
Approach, ye Furies fell ! 
O Fates ! come, come, 
Cut thread and thrum ; 
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell ! 
290 The. This passion and the death of a dear friend 
would go near to make a man look sad. 

Hip. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. 
Pyr. O, wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame? 
Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear : 
Which is — no, no — which was the fairest dame 
That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd 
with cheer. 

Come, tears, confound ; 
Out, sword, and wound 
The pap of Pyramus. — 
300 Ay, that left pap, 

Where heart doth hop: \_Stabs himself . 
Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. 
Now am I dead, 
Now am I fled; 



sc. I.J A MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM. 91 

My soul is in the sky: 

Tongue, lose thy light; 

Moon, take thy flight: 

{Exit Moonshine. 
Now die, die, die, die, die. {Dies. 

Dem. No die, but an ace, for him ; for he is but 
one. 310 

Lys. Less than an ace, man ; for he is dead ; he is 
nothing. 

The. With the help of a surgeon he might yet 
recover, and prove an ass. 

Hip. How chance Moonshine is gone before 
Thisbe comes back and finds her lover ? 

The. She will find him by starlight. — Here she 
comes ; and her passion ends the play. 

Enter Thisbe. 

Hip. Methinks she should not use a long one for 
such a Pyramus : I hope she will be brief. 320 

Dem. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyra- 
mus, which Thisbe, is the better ; he for a man, 
God warrant us ; she for a woman, God bless us. 

Lys. She hath spied him already with those sweet 
eyes. 

Dem. And thus she means, videlicet : — 

This. Asleep, my love ? 

What, dead, my dove ? 
O Pyramus, arise ! 

Speak, speak. Quite dumb? 330 

Dead, dead ? A tomb 
Must cover thy sweet eyes. 

These lily lips, 

This cherry nose, 



92 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act v. 

These yellow cowslip cheeks 

Are gone, are gone: 

Lovers, make moan: 

His eyes were green as leeks. 

O Sisters three, 

34° Come, come to me, 

With hands as pale as milk ; 
Lay them in gore, 
Since you have shore 
With shears his thread of silk. 
Tongue, not a word : 
Come, trusty sword ; 
Come, blade, my breast imbrue ; [Slabs herself \ 
And farewell, friends, — 
Thus Thisby ends, — 
35° Adieu, adieu, adieu ! [Dies. 

The. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the 
dead. 
Dem. Ay, and Wall too. 

Bot. No, I assure you ; the wall is down that 
parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the 
epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance, between 
two of our company ? 

The. No epilogue, I pray you ; for your play 
needs no excuse. Never excuse ; for, when the 
360 players are all dead, there need none to be blamed. 
Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus and 
hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it would have 
been a fine tragedy : and so it is, truly ; and very 
notably discharged. But, come, your Bergomask : 
let your epilogue alone. \A dance. 

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve : — 
Lovers, to bed ; 't is almost fairy-time. 
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn 



sc.i.] A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 93 

As much as we this night have overwatch'd. 

This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd 37° 

The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. 

A fortnight hold we this solemnity 

In nightly revels and new jollity. [Exeunt. 

Enter PUCK. 

Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, 

And the wolf behowls the moon ; 
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, 

All with weary task fordone. 
Now the wasted brands do glow, 

Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, 
Puts the wretch that lies in woe 380 

In remembrance of a shroud. 
Now it is the time of night 

That the graves, all gaping wide, 
Everyone lets forth his sprite 

In the church-way path to glide : 
And we fairies, that do run 

By the triple Hecate's team, 
From the presence of the sun, 

Following darkness like a dream, 
Now are frolic : not a mouse 390 

Shall disturb this hallow'd house: 
I am sent with broom before, 
To sweep the dust behind the door. 

Enter Oberon and Titania, with their train. 

Ode. Through the house give glimmering light, 
By the dead and drowsy fire : 
Every elf and fairy sprite 

Hop as light as bird from brier ; 



94 A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, [act v. 

And this ditty, after me, 

Sing, and dance it trippnigly. 
400 Tita. First, rehearse your song by rote, 

To each word a warbling note : 

Hand in hand, with fairy grace, 

Will we sing, and bless this place. 

[Song- and dance. 
Obe. Now, until the break of day, 

Through this house each fairy stray. 

To the best bride-bed will we, 

Which by us shall blessed be ; 

And the issue there create 

Ever shall be fortunate. 
410 So shall all the couples three 

Ever true in loving be ; 

And the blots of Nature's hand 

Shall not in their issue stand ; 

Never mole, hair-lip, nor scar, 

Nor mark prodigious, such as are 

Despised in nativity, 

Shall upon their children be. 

With this field-dew consecrate, 

Every fairy take his gait ; 
420 And each several chamber bless, 

Through this palace with sweet peace : 

And the owner of it blest, 

Ever shall in safety rest. 

Trip away ; make no stay; 

Meet me all by break of day. 

[Exeunt Oberon, TlTANlA, and train. 
Puck. If we shadows have offended, 

Think but this, and all is mended, 

That you have but slumber'd here 



sc. I.] A- MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 95 

While these visions did appear. 

And this weak and idle theme, 430 

No more yielding but a dream, 

Gentles, do not reprehend : 

If you pardon, we will mend. 

And, as I'm an honest Puck, 

If we have unearned luck 

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, 

We will make amends ere long ; 

Else the Puck a liar call : 

So, good-night unto you all. 

Give me your hands, if we be friends, 440 

And Robin shall restore amends. [Exit. 



NOTES 



ACT. I. 

Scene I. 

i. The name of Theseus, and that of Hippolyta, queen of the 
Amazons, may have been borrowed by Shakespeare from Chaucer's 
Knight's Tale, although there is nothing else in the play for which 
he can have been indebted to the same source. But he was no 
doubt acquainted with the story of Theseus in North's translation 
of Plutarch's Lives. 

4. She lingers my desires, delays the accomplishment of my 
desires. 

5. A step-dame, or a dowager, who has a life interest in the 
property which falls to the heir at her death. 

6. Withering out, causing the revenue to dwindle as she herself 
withers away. 

13. Pert, lively ; used in a good sense, and not as now as equiv- 
alent to something a little less than impudent, saucy. It is prob- 
ably connected with the Fr. appert (whence malapert). 

15. Companion, fellow. These two words have completely 
exchanged their meanings. " Companion " is not now used con- 
temptuously as it once was, and as " fellow" frequently is. 

19. With pomp, with triumph. A triumph was a public exhibi- 
tion or show, such as was originally used to celebrate a victory. 
The title of Bacon's 37th Essay is " Of Masques and Triumphs," 
and the two words appear to have been synonymous, for the Es- 
say treats of masques alone. 

20. Duke, leader, from the Lat. dux. A title which Shakespeare 
might have found attached to Theseus in Chaucer. See the 
Knight's Tale, 1. 860. 

21. What's the news with thee ? What has happened to thee ? 

32. Stol'n the impression of her fantasy, secretly stamped his 
image on her imagination. 

33. Gawds, trifling ornaments, toys. 
lb. Conceits, fanciful devices. 

34. Knacks, knick-knacks, trinkets. 

41. Solon's laws gave a father the power of life and death over 
his child. 

96 



SC. I.] 



NOTES. 97 



45. Immediately provided, etc., as Steevens has remarked, 
smacks of an attorney's office. 
50. And within his power it is. For this ellipsis see Abbott, 

§ 4°3- 

54. In this kind, in this respect. 

61. To plead my thoughts, to utter my thoughts by way of plea 
or argument. 

65. To die the death, to die ; generally but not uniformly ap- 
plied to death inflicted by law. 

68. Know of your youth, ascertain from your youth. 
lb. Blood, passion as opposed to reason. 

69. Whether, a monosyllable; as frequently in Shakespeare. 

70. The livery of a nun. " Livery, 11 which now denotes the 
dress of servants, formerly signified any distinciive dress, as in the 

firesent passage. The virgins sacred to Diana were prohibited 
rom marriage. Shakespeare in speaking of them uses the Chris- 
tian word " nun.' 1 

71. For aye, for ever. A.S. d, or aa, ever, always. 
lb. Mew'd, penned up, cooped up. 

75. Maiden pilgrimage, a course of life passed in virginity. 
This sense of " pilgrimage' 1 is in accordance with the usage of 
Scripture. 

76. Earthlier happy, more earthly happy, happier in an earthly 
sense. 

80. My virgin patent, my privilege of virginity and the liberty 
that belongs to it. 

81. Whose unwished yoke. The second folio, to mend the 
grammar, reads " to whose unwish'd yoke." 

90. Austerity, severe self-mortification ; used technically of the 
religious discipline of a nun. 
92. Crazed title, a title with a flaw in it. 

99. Deriv'd, descended. 

100. As well possess'd, with as good possessions or property. 
102. If not with vantage, if I have not even an advantage over 

him in this respect. 

106. To his head, before his face, openly and unreservedly. 
120. Extenuate, mitigate, weaken the force of. 
126. Nearly that concerns, that nearly concerns. 

130. Belike, probably, by likelihood. 

131. Beteem them, allow them. 

136. Cross, vexation, trial ; from the figurative usage of the word 
in Scripture. 

137. MisgrafFed, ill grafted. 

141. Sympathy, congruity, equality. 

143. Momentany. The reading of the quartos, altered in the 
folios to " momentary." The former seems to have been the earlier 
form of the word. 



98 NOTES. [act i. 

145. Collied, black ; literally, begrimed as with soot or coal. In 
Herefordshire "colly 11 signifies "dirty, smutty." 
147. In a spleen, in a swift, sudden fit, as of passion or caprice. 

155. Fancy's, love's. 

156. Persuasion, opinion, conviction. It also signifies a persua- 
sive argument, and perhaps has that sense here. 

160. Respects, regards, considers. 

164. Forth, out of. 

167. To do observance to a morn of May, to observe the rites 
of May-day. See iv. 1. 134, and Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1500:— 

" And for to doon his observance to May." 
" It was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a 
Maying early on the first of May. Bourne tells us that in his time, 
in the villages in the North of England, the juvenile part of both 
sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight on the morning of 
that day, and walk to some neighboring wood, accompanied with 
music and the blowing of horns, where they broke down branches 
from the trees and adorned them with nosegays and crowns of 
flowers. This done, they returned homewards with their booty 
about the time of sunrise, and made their doors and windows tri- 
umph in the flowery spoil." (Brand's Popular Antiquities.) 

Scarcely an English poet from Chaucer to Tennyson is without 
a reference to the simple customs by which our ancestors celebrated 
the advent of the flowers. May-dew was held of virtue as a cos- 
metic. Mrs. Pepys would go to Woolwich for air and to gather 
May-dew while her husband diverted himself at Vauxhall. For 
further information see Brand's Popular Antiquities already 
quoted, and Chambers's Book of Days, i. 570-582. 

170. With the golden head. Cupid's arrows in the old mythol- 
ogy were tipped either with gold or lead ; the former causing, the 
latter repelling, love. 

171. Venus' doves, which drew her chariot. 

173. See Virgil, ^Eneid, iv. 584, etc. Steevens pointed out the 
anachronism of making Dido and yEneas earlier in point of time 
than Theseus. But Shakespeare's Hermia lived in the latter part 
of the sixteenth century and was contemporary with Nick Bottom 
the weaver. " Carthage" as an adjective occurs several times in 
Marlowe's Tragedy of Dido. 

175. Broke, broken. Shakespeare uses both forms. 

182. Your fair, your beauty. 

183. Lode-stars, leading or guiding stars ; as the polar star is to 
sailors. 

186. Favor, outward appearance, aspect ; with a play upon the 
other meaning of the word. 

190. Bated, excepted. 

191. Translated, transformed. 

209. To-morrow night. There is a discrepancy here in point of 



II.] 



NOTES. 99 



time. At the opening of the play there are four days before the 
new moon. 

lb. Phoebe, one of the names of the moon, as sister to Phoebus, 
the sun. 

212. Still, constantly. 

215. Faint primrose-beds, on which those rest who are faint and 
weary. This proleptic use of the adjective is common in Shakes- 
peare. 

219. Stranger companies. Another emendation of Theobald's 
for " strange companions," which is the reading of the quartos and 
the folios. 

223. Morrow, to-morrow. 

226. Other some, others. 

231. Admiring of. In this construction "admiring 11 is a verbal 
noun, originally governed by a preposition " in" or " on," which 
has disappeared, but which exists sometimes in the degraded form 
" a," in such words as " a hunting," "a building." 

232. Holding no quantity, having no proportion to the estimate 
formed of them. 

233. Transpose, transform. 

242. Eyne, eyes ; the Old English plural, the Scotch een, which 
occurs again in ii. 2. 98 ; iii. 2. 138 ; v. 1. 180. It occurs in Chaucer 
in the forms eien, eyen, A. S. edgan. 

249. It is a dear expense, it will cost me dear, because it will be 
in return for my procuring him a sight of my rival. 

251. His sight, the sight of him. 



Scene II. 

2. You were best, it were best for you. 

lb. Generally in Bottom's language means particularly, sever- 
ally. 

3. The scrip, or written document. 

io. Grow to a point, so the quartos. The first three folios 
have " grow on to a point," and the fourth " grow on to appoint.' 1 
It is not always quite safe to interpret Bottom, but he seems to 
mean " come to the point." 

11. Marry, a common exclamation, from the name of the Virgin 
Mary. 

25. Gallant. The reading of the quartos. The folios have " gal- 
lantly." 

27. Ask, require. 

29. Condole. Bottom of course blunders, but it is impossible to 
say what word he intended to employ. 

30. To the rest ; yet my, etc., TheobaUTs reading. The early 
copies print " To the rest yet, my," etc., which may be the right 



ioo NO TES. [act i. 

punctuation : "yet " in this unemphatic position being used in the 
sense of " however. 1 ' 

31. Ercles. The part of Hercules in the old play to which refer- 
ence is made was like that of Herod in the mysteries, one in which 
the actor could indulge to the utmost his passion for ranting. 

32. To tear a cat in, to lant violently. 

lb. To make all split, used to denote violent action or uproar ; 
originally a sailor's phrase. 

47. A wandering knight, or knight errant. 

49. Let not me play a woman. Women's parts were commonly 
played by men or boys till after the Restoration. 

51. All one, all the same, no matter. 

52. You may speak as small, in as thin and clear a voice. 

53. An, if. Printed " And " in the old copies. 

55. Thisne, Thisne. These words are printed in italic in the 
old copies, as if they represented a proper name, and so " Thisne" 
has been regarded as a blunder of Bottom's for Thisbe. Bui as he 
has the name right in the very next line it seems more probable 
that " Thisne" signifies " in this way" ; and he then gives a speci- 
men of how he would aggravate his voice. Mr. Grant While 
reads, " Listen, listen." 

82. Aggravate. Bottom of course means the very opposite. 

84. An 'twere, as if it were. 

lb. Sucking dove. Oddly enough Bottom's blunder of "suck- 
ing dove" for " sucking lamb " has crept into Mrs. Cowden Clarke's 
Concordance to Shakespeare. 

94. Discharge, perform. It appears to have been a technical 
word belonging to the stage. 

95. Orange-tawny, reddish yellow. 

lb. Purple-in-grain, the dye obtained from the kermes (whence 
Fr. cramoisiy and English crimson), an insect which attached it- 
self to the leaves of the Kermes oak (Quercus cocci/era), a tree 
found in the south of Europe, especially in Spain, and also in India 
and Persia. An interesting discussion of the etymology of "grain" 
in the sense of dye will be found in Marsh's Lectures on the Eng- 
lish Language, 66-75. 

96. French-crown-color, the color of the gold coin of that 
name. 

106. Properties, a theatrical term for all the adjuncts of a play 
except the scenery and the dresses of the actors. 

112. Hold or cut bowstrings. Capell seems to have hit upon 
the true explanation of this expression. " When a party was made 
at butts, assurance of meeting was given in the words of that 
phrase : the sense of the person using them being, that he would 
' hold,' or keep promise, or they might 'cut his bowstrings,' de- 
molish him for an archer." Keep the appointment or give up shoot- 
ing. 



sc. i.] NOTES. 



ACT II. 

Scene I. 

3. Thorough. The spelling of the first quarto. 
7. Moon's, here a dissyllable, as if moones. 
lb. Sphere, orbit. 

9. Orbs, the circles in the grass called fairy rings, popularly be- 
lieved to be caused by the fairies dancing. 

10. Her pensioners, her body-guard. Henry the Eighth and 
Elizabeth both had such a band of attendants. They were young 
gentlemen of rank and fortune who were selected for their hand- 
some faces and figures. 

12. Favors, love-tokens. 

15. A pearl in every cowslip's ear. There are numberless al- 
lusions to the wearing of jewels in the ear both by men and women, 
in Shakespeare and in contemporary writers. 

16. Lob, equivalent to lubber, lout, and like them it is used con- 
temptuously. 

17. Elves, fairies; A.S. celf. 

20. Fell, fierce ; from Old French,/*/, Italian, fello, with which 
felon is connected. 

lb. Wrath, wroth, angry. So written for the sake of the rhyme. 

23. Changeling, usually a child left by the fairies: here, as a 
fairy is the speaker, it denotes the one taken by them. 

25. To trace, to traverse, wander through. 

30. Square, quarrel. 

32. Either, used as a monosyllable. 

33. Shrewd, mischievous. 

35. That frights. The later folios read " fright." so as to agree 
with " skim, 1 ' etc., that follow. Others rectify the irregularity by 
reading " skims,"" " labors," and so on. Hut it is not necessary to 
correct what Shakespeare may very well have written. The first 
verb " frights" is of course governed by " he, 1 ' which immediately 
precedes. The others are in agreement with " you." 

36. Quern, a hand-mill. A.S. cweorn or cwyrn. 

38. Barm, yeast ; so called in many provincial dialects still : A.S. 
beortna. 

40. Hobgoblin, made up of Hob — a popular corruption of Robin, 
which is a corruption of Robert — and goblin, from the old Fr. 
gobelin, a rogue. 

47. A gossip's bowl, originally a christening cup ; for a gossip or 
godsib was properly a sponsor. Hence, from signifying those who 
were associated in the festivities of a christening, it came to denote 
generally those who were accustomed to make merry together. 



102 NOTES. [act ii„ 

Archbishop Trench mentions that the word retains its original 
signification among the peasantry of Hampshire. He adds, " Gos- 
sips are, first, the sponsors, brought by the act of a common spon- 
sorship into affinity and near familiarity with one another ; second- 
ly, these sponsors, who being thus brought together, allow them- 
selves one with the other in familiar, and then in trivial and idle, 
talk; thirdly, any who allow themselves in this trivial and idle 
talk. 
48. Crab, crab apple. 

50. Dewlap, spelt " dewlop"" in the quartos and folios, is proper- 
ly the loose skin which hangs from the throat of cattle. 

51. Aunt, a familiar name for an old woman. Mr. Grant White 
remarks, " In New England villages good-natured old people are 
still called ' aunt 1 and ' uncle' by the whole community. 11 

54. Tailor. Johnson says, " The custom of crying; tailor at a sud- 
den fall backwards, I think I remember to have observed. He that 
slips beside his chair, falls as a tailor squats upon his board. 1 ' If 
this be not the true explanation, it is at least the only one which has 
been proposed. 

56. Neeze, sneeze; A. S. niesan, Germ, niesen. Similarly we 
find the two forms of the same word " knap 11 and " snap 11 ; " top' 1 
and "stop;" "cratch" and "scratch 11 ; " lightly 11 and " slightly 1 '; 
" quinsy" and " squinancy." 

58. Johnson, on account of the meter, would read " fairy" as a tri- 
syllable. Dr. Abbott, for the same reason, would prolong "room" 
(Shakesperian Grammar, § 484). 

67. Pipes of corn, made of oat straw. 

lb. Versing love, making love in verse. 

69. Steppe. So the first quarto. To the reading " steppe' 1 it is 
objected that the word as applied to the vast plains of Central 
Asia was not known in Shakespeare's day, but it is dangerous to 
assert a proposition which may be disproved by a single instance 
of the contrary. There is certainly no a priori reason why the 
present passage should not furnish that instance, inasmuch as a 
word of similar origin, " horde," was perfectly well known in Eng- 
land at the beginning of the 17th century. 

75. Glance at, hint at, indirectly attack. 

78. Perigenia. In North's Plutarch she is called Perigouna, the 
daughter of the famous robber Sinnis. By her Theseus had a son 
Menalippus. 

80. Ariadne, who guided Theseus out of the labyrinth of Crete, 
was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete. Antiopa, according 
to some, the Amazon queen, and the mother of Hippolytus. 

82. Middle summer's spring, the beginning of midsummer. 

84. Paved fountain, a fountain with a pebbly bottom. 

85. Margent, margin. 

88. Piping to us in vain, because we could not dance to them. 



SC. I.J 



NOTES. 103 



91. Pelting, paltry, insignificant. The folios have " petty.' 1 

92. That they, etc. The plural follows loosely as representing 
the collection ot individual rivers. 

lb. Their continents, the banks that contain them, or hold them 
in. 

95. His, is the old possession of it as well as of he. The form 
its first found in a book issued in 1598. Does not occur in the Bible 
of 1611, or in Spenser, but rarely in Shakespeare, only thrice in 
Milton, and is not common till Dryden. 

98. Nine men's morris. A rustic game, which is still extant in 
some parts of England, so called from the counters (Fr. merelles) 
with which it is played. It is described by James in the Variorum 
Shakespeare as follows : " In that part of Warwickshire where 
Shakespeare was educated, and the neighboring parts of North- 
amptonshire, the shepherds and other boys dig up the turf with 
their knives to represent a sort of imperfect chess-board. It con- 
sists of a square, sometimes only a foot diameter, sometimes three 
or four yards. Within this is another square, every side of which 
is parallel to the external square ; and these squares are joined by 
lines drawn from each corner of both squares, and the middle of 
each line. One party, or player, has wooden pegs, the other stones, 
which they move in such a manner as to taite up each other's men, 
as they are called, and the area of the inner square is called the 
pound, in which the men taken up are impounded. These figures 
are by the country people called Nine Men's Morris, or Merrils; 
and are so called because each party has nine men. These figures 
are always cut upon the green turf or leys, as they are called, or 
upon the grass at the end of plowed lands, and in rainy seasons 
never tail to be choked up with mud. 1 ' 

101. Human mortals. Titania speaks as a fairy. 

lb. Want, lack, are without. 

103. Therefore, because of our quarrel. 

106. This distemperature, this disturbance between Oberon and 
Titania. 

109. Hiems'. So Love's Labor's Lost, v. 2. 901 : " This side is 
Hiems, Winter." 

112. Childing autumn, autumn that brings forth the products 
of the year. 

113. Mazed, bewildered, thrown into confusion. 

121. Henchman, a page. The word is of uncertain origin. 
Skeat says it is almost certain that the right etymology is M.E. 
hengest, a horse, and E. man. 

123. Votaress, one that had taken vows. 

124. Spiced, laden with spices, balmy. 

127. The embarked traders on the flood, the merchants em- 
barked upon the sea. 



104 NOTES. [act ii. 

135. Intend you stay. " To 1 ' is frequently omitted in such con- 
structions. 

145, etc. The reference in this passage is supposed to be to Mary 
Queen of Scots and to Elizabeth. 

147. On a dolphin's back, like Arion, who charmed the fish 
with his song and was saved from drowning. 

149. Civil, softened and as it were civilized by the refining in- 
fluence of music. 

157. As, as if. 

158. Might, could, was able. 

165. Love-in-idleness is one of the names given to the pansy or 
heartsease. 

171. The leviathan. The margins of the Bibles in Shakespeare's 
day explained leviathan as a whale, and so no doubt he thought it. 

172. To " put a girdle round about the earth " was a common ex- 
pression for making a voyage round the world. 

189. Wood, mad, raging ; A.S. wdd ; Sc. 7vod, or -wud. 

211. Impeach, bring into question, expose to reproach. 

217. Your virtue is my privilege : for that, etc. Your virtue 
is my protection, because it is not, etc. This is the reading of the 
early copies. 

221. In my respect, in my regard or estimation. 

224. In the brakes, in the thickets. 

228. Apollo, in love with the unwilling Daphne, pursued her, 
and was on the point of overtaking her, when the nymph was 
turned into a laurel tree. 

229. The griffin, a fabulous creature, half beast, half bird of 
prey ; now, like the unicorn, only known in the zoology of her- 
aldry. 

230. Bootless, profitless, worthless: from A.S. bdt, profit, ad- 
vantage. 

232. I will not stay thy questions, I will not wait to talk with 
thee. 

241. Upon the hand, comes to be nearly equivalent to "by the 
hand," while with this is combined the idea of local nearness to 
the beloved object which is contained in the ordinary meaning of 
" upon. 1 ' 

247. Grows, attracted into the singular by the nearer subject 
" violet." 

248. Woodbine. Old spelling -woodbynd — so called because it 
winds about and binds trees. 

249. Eglantine, the sweet briar. 

253. Weed, dress, garment ; A.S. weed. " Widow's weeds." 
263. Fond, doting. 



sc. ii.] NOTES. 105 



Scene II. 

1. A roundel, like "round,' 1 and "roundelay, 11 signifies both a 
circular dance, and a part song or catch. 

4. Some war, etc. " War" is imperative, " let some war,' 1 etc. 

Id. Rere-mice, bats ; A.S. hrere-mtis, from hreran, to stir, agi- 
tate, and so equivalent to the old name " flittermouse. 11 

7. Quaint, fine, delicate. 

9. Double, forked, cloven. 

ir. Newts, lizards. " A newt 11 is an evet or eft (A.S. efete), the 
" n 11 of the article having become attached to the following word 
as in " nonce, 11 " noumpere 1 ' = umpire, and others. In "adder 1 ' 
the opposite process has taken place, and "a nadder 1 ' (A. S. na>ddre) 
has become " an adder 1 ' ; so " an auger" is really " a nauger" (A.S. 
nafegdr). 

13. Philomel, or Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, was 
transformed into a nightingale and lamented her sad fate in the 
plaintive notes of the bird which bears her name. 

29. Ounce ; Felis uncia an animal resembling the leopard, but 
much smaller. 

30. Pard, panther or leopard. 

4t. One troth, one faith or trust, pledged to each other in be- 
trothal. 

44. Take the sense, sweet, of my innocence, understand my 
innocent meaning. 

53. Beshrew is used in asseverations to give emphasis, or as 
here for a mild oath, a " mischief on, 11 " evil befaii." 

57-60. In human modesty . . . distant. The sense is clear 
though the syntax is imperfect ; " in human modesty (let there be) 
such separation," etc., and " So far be distant " is merely a repeti- 
tion of the same thing. 

67. Approve, prove, test, try. 

74. Dank, damp, wet. 

77. Churl, a peasant, boor (A.S. ceorl) ; and hence one of rough 
and rude manners. 

78. Owe, own, possess. 
85. Darkling, in the dark. 

96. As a monster, in apposition with " my presence." 
98. Sphery, starlike. " Sphere" is used by Shakespeare to de- 
note first the orbit in which a star moves, and then the star itself. 

117. Ripe not, grow not ripe, ripen not. 

118. Touching now the point of human skill, having reached 
the height of discernment possible to man. 

153. Of all loves ! bv everything that is loving I entreat you. 



io6 NOTES. [act hi. 



ACT III. 

Scene I. 

2. Pat, pat, just, exactly. 
4. Hawthorn-brake, thicket of hawthorns. 

8. Bully, a term of familiarity addressed K y his companions to 
a jolly blustering fellow. 

13. By'r lakin, by our ladykin, or little lady. 
lb. Parlous, perilous, dangerous. 

15. When all is done, after al!. 

16. Not a whit. This is a redundant expression, since ,: not " 
itself is a contraction of ndiviki, or naivhit. 

20. More better. This double comparative was common in 
Shakespeare's time, and is suitable to Bottom as being rather ex- 
aggerated language, and not because it was thought ungrammat- 
ical. 

24. In eight and six, that is, in alternate verses of eight and six 
syllables each ; the common ballad meter. 

27. Afeard, afraid : though here a provincialism appropriate to 
rustics, the word was otherwise in good use. 

39. Defect, for " effect.' 1 Bottom's blunders are generally very 
intelligible. 

43. It were pity of my life, it were a sad thing for my life, that 
is, for me. 

47. There is two. Here the singular verb precedes the plural 
subject, the subject being as yet future, and as it were unsettled. 
Abbott, § 335. 

61. Present, act the part of. 

76. Cue, a player's word ; from Fr. queue, a tail. It technically 
denotes the last words of a speech which give the next speaker the 
hint when to begin. Hence it signifies generally the part an actor 
has to perform. 

80. A play toward, or ready to be acted. 

118. You see an ass-head of your own. BoUom indulges in 
what appears to have been a piece of familiar banter of the time, 
without knowing how much it affected himself. 

i2i. Translated, transformed. 

127. The ousel-cock, the male blackbird. In the quartos and 
folios it is spelt " woosell," or " woosel," and is probably the same 
as Fr. oiseau, of which the old form was oisel. 

134. Plain-song cuckoo, so called from his monotonous note. 
The plain-song was the simple melody on which variations were 
made. 

137. Would set his wit to so foolish a bird, would match his 
wit against a cuckoo's. 



sc. ii.] NOTES. 107 

149. Gleek, jest, scoff. 

158. Still, ever, constantly. 

169. Apricocks, the earlier and more correct spelling of "apri- 
cots." The word has a curious history. In Latin the fruit was 
called praecoqua, or praecocia, from being early ripe. Hence in 
Arabic it became barquq, or bz'rquq, and with the article al-barquq, 
or al-birquq, Spanish, albarcoque, French, abricot, and English, 
abricot, abrtcoct, apricock, or apricot. 

lb. Dewberries, the fruit of the dewberry bush or blue bramble, 
of which the botanical name is Rubus caesius. 

174. To have my love to bed and to arise, to conduct him to 
his bed and to attend him when he rises. 

185. I shall desire you of more acquaintance. The same 
construction is found in the Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 402 : — 

" I humbly do desire your grace of pardon." 

186. If I cut my finger, a cobweb being sometimes used to 
stanch blood. 

190. Squash, an unripe peascod. 

196. Your patience, your endurance, what you have endured. 

Scene II. 

3. In extremity, in the highest degree, to the utmost, exces- 
sively. 

5. Night-rule, night-order, revelry, or diversion. 

7. Close, secret, private, retired. 

9. Patches, fools, foolish fellows ; used as a familiarly contempt- 
uous term. 

lb. Mechanicals, mechanics, artisans. 

14. Who Pyramus presented, played the part of Pyramus. 

Nowl, a grotesque word for head, like pate, noddle. The 
hnoll, knoll, the top of anything, is the same word. 

19. Mimic, actor, player. 

21. Russet-patted. I have not hesitated to adopt Mr. Bennett's 
suggestion (Zoological Journal, v. 496), communicated to me by 
Professor Newton, to substitute "russet-patted," or red-legged 
(Fr. a pattes rousses). for the old reading " russet-pated, 11 which is 
untrue as a description of the chough (a bird closely allied to the 
jackdaw, but slighter, and more elegant in shape), for it has a 
russet-colored bill and feet but a perfectly black head. 

25. At our stamp, at hearing the footsteps of the fairies, which 
were powerful enough to " rock the ground " : see iv. 1. 88. 

41. Close, so as to be unobserved. 

62. What's this to my Lysander ? what has this to do with 
him ? 

68. Once, for once. 



a! 



108 NOTES. [act IIL 

lb. Tell true, speak truth. 

71. A worm, a serpent. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 

243:— 

" Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there, 
That kills and pains not ?" 
74. A mispris'd mood, a mistaken humor or caprice ; a temper 
of mind arising- from a mistake. 
78. Therefor, for that, thereby. 

87. Tender, offer; keeping up the figure of debt and payment 
in the previous lines. 
93. Confounding oath on oath, breaking one oath after another. 

96. Cheer, countenance; Fr. chere, Ital. ciera, or cera. 

97. Sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear. " Costs 11 
is here attracted into the singular by the word " love," which comes 
between it and its subject. 

101. The Tartar's bow. Bacon's Advancement of Learning, 
Bk. II. xiv. 11, reads, " Yet certain it is that words, as a Tartar's 
bow, do shoot back upon the understanding of the wisest.' 1 The 
Tartars were famous for their skill in archery, like the ancient 
Parthians. 

114. Their fond pageant, the foolish spectacle they present. 

119. Sport alone, to which nothing can be compared. 

129. When truth kills truth. If Lysander's present protesta- 
tions are true, they destroy the truth of his former vows to Hermia, 
and the contest between these two truths, which in themselves 
are holy, must in the issue be devilish and end in the destruction 
of both. 

133. As light as tales, or idle words. 

141. Taurus, a lofty range of mountains in Asia Minor. 

150. Join in souls, combine heart and soul, join heartily. 

169. I will none, will none of her, desire her not. 

175. Aby it, pay for it, atone for it. 

188. Oes, circles, orbs. Circular disks of metal which were used 
for ornaments were called " oes. 1 ' 

195. Injurious, insulting. 

203. Two artificial gods, two gods exercising their creative skill 
in art ; in this case the art of embroidery. 

213. Two of the first, like coats in heraldry. Shakespeare 
borrows the language of heraldry, in which, when a tincture has 
been once mentioned in the description of a coat of arms, it is al- 
ways afterwards referred to according to the order in which it 
occurs in the description ; and a charge is accordingly said to be 
" of the first,' 1 " of the second," etc., if its tincture be the same as 
that of the field which is always mentioned first, or as that of the 
second or any other that has been specified. Hence Douce's ex- 
planation is the correct one : " Helen says, ' we had two seeming 
bodies but only one heart.' She then exemplifies her position by 



sc. ii.] NOTES. 109 

a simile — 'we had two of the first, i.e., bodies, like the double 
coats in heraldry that belong to man and wife as one person, but 
which, like our single heart, have but one crest.' " 

215. Rent, the old form of " rend.' 1 

239. Hold the sweet jest up, keep it going, carry it on. 

242. Such an argument, a subject for such merriment. 

257. Ethio'p. Hermia was a brunette. 

274. Erewhile, a short time since, just now. 

282. Juggler, a trisyllable. 

lb. Canker-blossom is generally taken to mean a blossom eaten 
by a canker, having a show of fairness but hollow within. But it 
is probably a compound formed like " kill-courtesy'" (ii. 2. 77), 
"kill-joy,' 1 and is equivalent to " blossom-cankerer" ; Hermia 
comparing Helena to a canker that has stealthily eaten into, and 
destroyed, Lysander's love for her. 

296. Thou painted maypole. Stow, in his Survey of London 
(ed. Thorns, p. 54), gives an account of the great maypole in Corn- 
hill, which when set up on the south side of the church of St. An- 
drew Undershaft, was higher than the church steeple. 

300. Curst, spiteful, mischievous; used of a woman who is a 
scold. 

302. A right maid, a true maid. 

314. So, provided that. 

323. Shrewd, mischievous, especially with the tongue. See ii. 
1. 33, and Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1. 20 : " Thou wilt never get 
thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue. 1 ' 

324. Vixen, properly a she-fox ; hence applied to an ill-tempered 
spiteful woman. The form of the word is especially interesting 
as being an instance in which the feminine termination -en has 
been preserved. 

329. Minimus, smallest thing. 

lb. Hindering knot-grass. The common knot-grass {polygo- 
num aviculare) was formerly believed to have the power of check- 
ing the growth of children. 

330. You bead. As beads were generally black, there is a refer- 
ence here to Hermia's complexion as well as to her size. 

333. Intend, pretend. Demetrius does not think Lysander in 
earnest. 

33.3. Cheek by jole, side by side, close together, as the cheek to 
the jole or jaw. " Jole" is from A.S. ceafl. 

339. Coil, disturbance, turmoil. 

lb. 'Long of you, owing to you. 

352. Sort, turn out, result. 

353. As, inasmuch as. 

356. Welkin, sky; A.S. auolcen, cloud. 



no NOTES. [act iv. 

357. Acheron, the river of hell in classical mythology, supposed 
by Shakespeare to be a pit or lake. 
359. As, that. 
367. Virtuous property, healthful, beneficial quality." 

379. Night's swift dragons. The chariot of night was drawn 
by dragons. Compare Cymbeline, ii. 2, 48 : — 

" Swilt, swift, you dragons of the night P 1 

380. Aurora's harbinger, the morning star. A harbinger orig- 
inally was one who provided lodgings for a man of rank — from 
H. G. hereberga, a camp, lodging. 

383. The bodies of those who had committed suicide were buried 
in cross ways, with a stake driven through them. 

lb. Floods, rivers; or perhaps any large bodies of water as op- 
posed to land. 

389. The morning's love. Cephalus, with whom Oberon had 
hunted. 

402. Drawn, that is, with sword drawn. 

421. Ho, ho, ho ! A taunting cry, which, according to Ritson 
in his note on the passage, is uttered by Puck as his usual exclama- 
tion, having forgotten the part he was assuming. 

422. Abide me, wait for me, that we may encounter. 

432. Shine comforts, cause comforts to shine. 

433. That I may back. For the omission of the verb of motion 
before " to" or an adverb of direction, see ii. 1. 143, and iv. 1. 23: 
" I must to the barber's, mounsieur." 

441. Females. This word has in Shakespeare its natural sense, 
and never means a woman specially, as often vulgarly used now. 

461. Jack and Jill, as generic names for a man and a woman, 
are of great antiquity. 



ACT IV. 
Scene I. 

1. Johnson remarks, " I see no reason why the fourth Act should 
begin here, when there seems no interruption of the action." 

2. Coy, coax, caress. 

19. Neaf, fist; spelt in the quartos and first folios " neafe" : 
corrupted in the later folios to " newfe," "newse," and finally 
" news." 

20. Leave your courtesy ; that is, put on your hat, be covered. 
23. Cobweb. Grey says, "Without doubt it should be Cavalero 

Peaseblossom ; as for cavalero Cobweb, he had just been dis- 
patched upon a perilous adventure." 
35. A bottle of hay, a bundle or truss of hay. The common 



sc. i.] NOTES. in 

proverb is well known of the search for anything hard to find, 
that it is like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay. 

41. Exposition, for k> disposition." 

43. Be all ways away, disperse yourselves in every direction. 

45. The female ivy, so called because it is, as it were, married 
to the elm ; as Catullus says of the vine, lxii. 54 : — 
" Uhno conjuncta marito." 

53. Rounded, encircled. 

56. Orient pearls, bright, shining pearls. The epithet appears 
to be originally applied to the pearl and other gems as coming 
from the orient or east, and to have acquired the general sense of 
bright and shining from the objects which it most commonly ae- 
scribes. 

69. May all, that is, they may all, etc. 

75. Dian's bud, if it has a botanical existence at all, may be the 
bud of the Agnus castus, or Chaste Tree, of which it is said in 
Macer's Herball, " The vertue of this herbe is, that he wyll kepe 
man and woman chaste." But it is more probably a product of 
Shakespeare's imagination, which had already endued " Cupid's 
flower," the heart's ease, with qualities not recognized in botany. 

84. The sense of all these five sleepers. 

88. Rock the ground, like a cradle. 

89. Are new in amity, are again friends. It is difficult to say 
whether " new" is here an adjective or adverb. Probably the lat- 
ter. 

92. Posterity. The first quarto has prosperity, which reading 
is favored by ii. 1. 73, above. 

106. Our observation. The "observance to a morn of May," 
spoken of in i. 1. 167. 

107. The vaward, the vanguard (Fr. avantgarde), or advanced 
guard of an army, and hence, the early part of the day. 

114. Hercules, the son of Zeus and Alcmena, celebrated for his 
strength ; Cadmus, the first to introduce alphabetic writing among 
the Greeks. 

115. They bay'd the bear. According to Pliny (viii. 83), there 
were neither bears nor boars in the island. We may therefore 
leave the natural history to adjust itself, as well as the chronology 
which brings Cadmus with Hercules and Hippolyta into the hunt- 
ing field together. To " bay," which signifies to bark, or bark at, 
is used technically for " to bring to bay," that is, to drive the ani- 
mal pursued to turn upon his pursuers. 

116. Hounds of Sparta. The Spartan hounds were celebrated 
for their swiftness, and their quickness of scent. 

117. Chiding, used of noise simply. 

122. So flew'd. The flews of a hound are the large overhang- 
ing chaps. 
lb. So sanded, of such a sandy color. 



H2 NOTES. [act iv. 

125. Mouth, used of the bark of a dog. 

147. To sleep, etc. For the omission of "as"' after "so" see 
Abbott, § 281. 

148. Amazedly, confusedly ; in a state of astonishment or con- 
fusion of mind. 

155. Without, beyond the reach of. 

156. You have enough, that is, you have enough evidence to 
convict him by his own confession. 

166. I wot not, I know not. See iii. 2. 422. " Wot" is properly 
a preterite (A.S. wdt y from ivitan, to know), and is used as a pres- 
ent. 

T75. Like in sickness, like as one sick, Schmidt expla 

184. For, because. 

lb. "Worn, exhausted, consumed, wasted. 

193. Like a jewel, as one finds a jewel which does not belong 
to him. 

198. Yea here is the answer to a question framed in the nega- 
tive, contrary to the rule laid down by Sir Thomas More, accord- 
ing to which it should be " yes." 

209. Go about, endeavor. 

212. A patched fool, a motley fool, a pied ninny ; so called 
from the parti-colored dress worn by jesters. 

218. At her death; that is, at Thisbe's death : for, though Thisbe 
is not mentioned, Bottom's head is full of the play. 



Scene II. 

4. Transported, transformed, transfigured ; in Starveling's lan- 
guage this is equivalent to " translated " in iii. i, 121. 

5-?. It goes not forward, does not go on, take place. 

14. A thing of naught, a naughty, wicked thing. 

17. We had all been made men, our fortunes had all been 
made. 

27. Courageous. It is not worth while to guess what Quince 
intended to say. He used the first long word that occurred to him 
without reference to its meaning, a practice not yet altogether 
extinct. 

31. Right, exactly. 

35. Good strings to your beards, to tie the false beards on 
with. 

38. Preferred, offered for acceptance— if Bottom's words have a 
meaning, which is not always certain. 



sc. i.] NOTES. 113 



ACT V. 

Scene I. 

2. May, can. 

3. Toys, trifles. 

4. Such seething brains, such hot boiling brains, full of wild 
imaginations. 

5. That apprehend, etc., that slightly catch at, as it were, or 
conceive the idea of more than reason can ever fully grasp or con- 
tain. 

8. Compact, formed, composed ; literally, fastened or knit to- 
gether. 

11. A brow of Egypt, a swarthy brow, like a gipsy's. 

26. Constancy, consistency, reality. 

27. Howsoever, nevertheless, in any case. 

lb. Admirable, to be wondered at ; its etymological meaning. 

35. Our after-supper, or rear-supper ; not the time after supper, 
as it is usually explained, but a banquet so called which was taken 
after the meal. 

39. Philostrate, the master of the revels. 

41. Abridgment, an entertainment to make the time pass 
quickly. Used in Hamlet, ii. 2, 439, in a double sense, the entry of 
the players cutting short Hamlet's talk : " For look, where my 
abridgment comes." 

43. The lazy time, which moves so slowly, and in which we are 
idle. 

44. A brief, a short statement, containing the programme of the 
performance. 

46. The Centaurs (bull-killers), an ancient race of fierce men 
inhabiting Mt. Pelion in Thessaly; in later accounts, pictured as 
half-horses and half-men. 

54. The thrice three Muses, etc. Warton suggested "that 
Shakespeare here perhaps alluded to Spenser's poem, entited 
The Tears of the Muses, on the neglect and contempt of learning." 
It was supposed by Knight that the death of Greene may be here 
referred to, which took place in 1592. 

56. Critical, censorious ; as Iago says of himself in Othello, ii. 1, 
120: " For I am nothing, if not critical." 

57. Not sorting with, or agreeing with, not befitting. 

71. Made mine eyes water. We must supply "it" as the 
nominative ; that is, the seeing of the play rehearsed. 

86. Simpleness, simplicity, innocence. 

97. Clerks, scholars, learned men ; learning having been at one 
time almost confined to the clergy. 

109. To my capacity, so far as I am able to understand. 



ii4 NOTES. [act v. 

in. Address'd, ready, prepared. 

122. Doth not stand upon points, is not very particular, with 
a reference to his not minding his stops. 

127. A recorder, a kind of flageolet, or flute with a mouthpiece. 

134. Certain. A most convenient word for filling up a line and 
at the same time conveying no meaning. 

141. Think no scorn, not disdain. 

143. Hight, was called ; here used as an intentional archaism. It 
was in common use in old writers, and is equivalent to the Germ. 
heissen ; A.S. hdtan ; Goth, hattan. 

146. Fall, let fall. 

150, 151. Shakespeare ridicules the alliteration which the poetas- 
ters of his day affected. It was an exaggeration of the principle 
upon which Anglo-Saxon verse was constructed. 

166. Sinister, left; used by Snout for two reasons; first, be- 
cause it is a long word, and then because it gives a sort of rhyme 
to " whisper." 

200. Limander. Johnson has pointed out that Limander and 
Helen are blunders for Leander and Hero, as Shafalus and Procrus 
are for Cephalus and Procris. 

207. 'Tide life, 'tide death, whether life or death betide. 

210. Now is the mural down. If there were any evidence for 
the existence of such a word as " mural " used as a substantive, it 
would be but pedantic and affected and so unsuited to Theseus. 
Having regard therefore to the double occurrence of the word 
"wall" in the previous speech and its repetition by Demetrius, 
Theseus may have said, " Now is the wall down between the two 
neighbors," just as Bottom says later on, " The wall is down that 
parted their fathers." 

248. The greatest error of all the rest. Compare the often- 
quoted lines of Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 323, 4 : — 

" Adam the goodliest man of men since born 
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve." 

252. It is already in snuff. Demetrius as a professed joker 
quibbles upon the word "snuff." " To take in snuff" is to take 
offense ; and " to be in snuff" is to be offended. 

272. Moused, torn in pieces ; as a cat tears a mouse. 

288. Thrum is the loose end of a weaver's warp, and is used of 
any coarse yarn. 

289. Quell, destroy; A.S. cwellan. In Macbeth, i. 7, 72.it is 
used as a substantive for " murder." 

297. Confound, destroy, ruin. 

309. Die, but an ace, an allusion to the spots on dice. 

339. Sisters three, the three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atro- 
pos, who overrule the lives of men. 

343. Shore, for "shorn." The rhyme is too much for Thisbe's 
grammar. 



sc. i.] NOTES. 115 

347. Imbrue, make bloody, stain with blood. 

356. A Bergomask dance. Hanmer explains this "as a dance 
after the manner of the peasants of Bergomasco, a country of Italy, 
belonging to the Venetians. All the buffoons in Italy affect to 
imitate the ridiculous jargon of that people, and from thence it be- 
came a custom to mimic also their manner of dancing." If we 
substitute Bergamo for Bergomasco his explanation is correct. 

364. Discharged, performed. 

370. Palpable-gross, the grossness or roughness of which is 
palpable. 

371. The heavy gait, or slow progress. " Gait " is now used of 
the manner of walking. 

377. Fordone, exhausted. 

387. The triple Hecate's team. Hecate was Selene, or Luna, 
in heaven ; Artemis, or Diana, on earth ; Persephone, or Proser- 
pine, in the lower world. She is therefore represented with three 
bodies and three heads. 

390. Frolic, merry. 

393. To sweep the dust behind the door, where it would be 
likely to escape notice. Robin Goodfellow was believed to help 
good housemaids in their work, and to punish those who were 
sluttish. 

399. Dance it. For "it "used indefinitely as the object of a 
verb, without any antecedent, see Abbott, § 226. 

403, 407. The blessing of the bridal bed was one of the ancient 
ceremonies of marriage. 

412. The blots of Nature's hand, like the " vicious mole of 
nature" (Hamlet, i. 4, 24), were attributed to malignant fairies. 

415. Prodigious, monstrous, portentous. 

418. Consecrate, consecrated, sacred. This form of participle 
in words derived from the Latin is of frequent occurrence. 

419. Take his gait, take his way or course. 

436. If we 'scape the serpent's tongue, that is, without being 
hissed. 

440. Give me your hands, that is, applaud by clapping. Com- 
pare All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3, 340 : — 

" Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts." 



EXAMINATION PAPERS. 



A. 

i. Whence did Shakespeare derive the materials for his Mid- 
summer-Nighfs Dream ? 

2. Give an account of the supernatural machinery and action in 
the play. 

3. Give some account of the early editions of this play, discuss 
their comparative values, and show how much each has contrib- 
uted to the received text. 

4. Illustrate from this play that some words were accented in 
Shakespeare's time nearer the beginning, and others nearer the 
end, than in modern usage. 

5. Give an etymological account of the following words : Pert, 
gossip, mew^d, aby, apricocks, hobgoblin, and dotvager. 

6. Illustrate Shakespeare's knowledge of field-flowers from the 
present play. 

7 Explain the following words and phrases: Abridgment, coil, 
bottle, canker-blossom, Bergomask, gleek, ousel, nine men's morris, 
lode-star, plain-song, thrum, and knot-grass. 

8. Explain the allusions in the following passages : — 

(a) For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast, 
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger ; 

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, 
Troop home to churchyards. — Act III. ii. 379-382. 

(b) So we grew together, 
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted ; 
But yet a union in partition. 

Two lovely berries molded on one stem ; 
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart ; 
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, 
Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. 

— Act III. ii. 209-214. 
(r) The cowslips tall her pensioners be : 

In their gold coats spots you see. — Act II. i. 10-11. 

(d) Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase. — Act II. i. 228. 

(e) We'.l, we will have such a prologue : and it shall be writ- 

ten in eight and six. — Act III. i. 23-24. 

Il6 



EXAMINATION PAPERS. 117 

(f) I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, 

When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear 
With hounds of Sparta.— Act IV. i. 114-116. 
9. Scan the following lines : — 

(a) How now, spirit ! whither wander you ? — Act II. i. 1. 

(b) I do wander everywhere, 

Swifter than the moon's sphere. — Act II. i. 6-7. 

(c) This is he, my master said 
Despised the Athenian maid ; 

And here the maiden, sleeping sound, 

On the dank and dirty ground. 

Pretty soul ! she durst not lie 

Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.— Act II. ii. 71-76. 



B. 

1. Discuss the question of the date of the play, and give any 
historical evidence you can for your conclusion. 

2. How has Shakespeare modified our ideas of the fairy world ? 

3. What use is made of rhyme in this play ? Give a general ac- 
count of Shakespeare's use of rhyme in his development as a 
dramatic poet. 

4. Explain the following words and phrases : Welkin, murrain, 
margent, buskined, by''?- lakin, darkling, dtike, cue, fancy, pro- 
digious, present, ounce, orbs, newts, night-rule, knacks, fordone, 
quern, thing of naught, gawds, gait, owe, pat. 

5. Give some examples from our play of grammatical licenses in 
Elizabethan usage not now allowable. 

6. Give the etymology of Puck, quern, brazul, livery, hight, 
neeze, newt, rere-mice, henchman, orange-tawny. 

7. Explain any grammatical point worth noticing in the follow- 
ing passages : — 

(a) Ere I will yield my virgin patent up 
Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke 

My soul consents not to give sovereignty.— Act I. i. 80-82. 

(b) I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia. — Act I. i. 104. 
(V) By all the vows that ever men have broke, 

In number more than ever women spoke. — Act I. i. 175-176. 

(d) And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, 

So I, admiring of his qualities. — Act I. i. 230-231. 

(e) You were best to call them generally. — Act I. ii. 2. 
if) An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. 

—Act I. ii. 53-54. 
(g) How long within this wood intend you stay ? — Act II. i. 135. 
(/?) Thou shalt not from this grove. — Act II. i. 143. 



n8 EXAMINATION PAPERS. 

(i) ril follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, 

To die upon the hand I love so well.— Act II. i. 240-241. 
(J) But there is two hard things. — Act III. i. 47-48. 
(£) This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name.— Act. V. i. 143. 
8. Add notes to the following passages : — 

(a) Thus hath he lost sixpence a day during his life ; he could 

not have 'scaped sixpence a day. — Act IV. ii. 19-20. 

(b) The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, 

Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage. — Act V. i. 50-51. 
(<:) Whereat with blade, with bloody, blameful blade, 
He bravely broacrTd his boiling, bloody breast. 

— Act V. i. 150-151. 
(d) He for a man, God warrant us ; she for a woman, God 
bless us. — Act V. i. 322-323. 



1. At what period of Shakespeare's dramatic life was the present 
play written ? Discuss the question fully, arguing from metrical 
considerations alone. 

2. Contrast A Midsummer-Night' 's Dream with the Tempest 
as regards motive and meaning. Compare the human figures in 
either play. 

3. Explain the following words and phrases: Needs, pageant, 
patches, pelting, marry, make all split, holding no quantity, im- 
peach, pensioners, momentany, pard, minimus, man-in-the-moon, 
lob, griffin, harbinger, how chanre, grisly, flewe 'd, sanded, self- 
affairs, sinister, squash, mermaid, russet-patted choughs, hench- 
man, tailor, square, in snuff. 

4. Give a historical account of the plural inflections in English 
nouns. 

5. Give examples from the present play of double negatives, 
double comparatives, adjectives used substantively. 

6. Give instances from the play of Shakespeare's play on words. 

7. Paraphrase the following passages : — 

(a) To you your father should be as a god ; 

One that composM your beauties ; yea, and one 

To whom you are but as a form in wax 

By him imprinted, and within his power, 

To leave the figure or disfigure it. — Act I. i. 47 51. 

(b) Our sport shall be to take what they mistake : 
And what poor duty cannot do, but would, 

Noble respect takes it in might, not merit. — Act V i. 94-96. 

8. Discuss the criticism of the plot offered in Hippolyta's words, 
V. i. 23-27. 



EXAMINATION PAPERS. 119 



D. 

1. What metrical tests would you apply to Shakespeare's dra- 
matic work to determine its period ? 

2. Give Mr. Daniel's " time-analysis 11 of the play, and point out 
any inaccuracies of time or inconsistencies in the action you may 
have observed. 

3. Explain the following words and phrases : Latched, throstle, 
tide, toward, vaward, votaress, trace, sphery, beshrew, spotted, 
scrip, ringlets, rheumatic, recorder, properties, periods, noivl, 
mew, mural, jangling, grimloo/Sd, earthlier happy, eight and six, 
brow of Egypt, eke, dewberries, continents, curst, collied, cheer, 
bully, barm, Acheron, weeds. 

4. Give a historical account of the words vixen, eyne, its, and 
spinster. 

5. Add notes to the following passages : — 

(a) I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, — 
As she is mine, I may dispose of her : 
Which shall be either to this gentleman, 
Or to her death, according to our law 
Immediately provided in that case. — Act I. i. 41-45. 
(3) Marry, our play is — The most lamentable Comedy, and 
most cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby. — Act I. ii. 
n-13. 

(c) Nay, faith, let not me play a woman ; I have a beard com- 

ing. — Act I. ii. 49-50. 

(d) What beard were I best to play it in ?— Act I. ii. 91-92. 

(e) Bottom. I have a reasonable good ear in music. — Act IV. 

i. 29. 

6. How are the following words and phrases used : Withering, 
companion, between, spleen, scrip, properties, Cupid' 1 s strongest 
bow, the false Trojan, Cupid painted blind, to tear a cat in, hold 
or cut bowstrings, Centaurs, triple Hecate. 

7. Discuss the question of the representation of the Midsummer- 
Night's Dream on the stage. 

8. Some of the most commonly quoted passages of Shakespeare 
occur in this play. Give as many of these as you remember. 



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ordinary transactions of commercial life, in the form of a Class- 
book tor Schools and Commercial Colleges. 

The chief aim has been throughout to make it a book 
practically useful, and one easily taught, understood and re- 
membered. As subserving those purposes attention may be 
called to the following features among others:— the use of 
schemes in graded type, which summarizing a subject impresses 
it upon the mind through the eye; the summaries of leading 
rules at different points ; a table of definitions ; the forms of 
business papers most frequently met with; and the frequent 
use of examples and cross-references. 

The work, is used in nearly all of the leading Commercial Col- 
leges of the country. 

RECOMMENDATIONS. 

FromB. F. Moore, A.M., Pres. Southern Business University, Atlanta, Ga. 
I find the work fully adapted for use in business schools as a text 
book, on account of its conciseness; also to thd accountant as a book of 
reference on points of commercial law and business forms. It is the 
most complete and concise work on the subject that I have seen. 

Souder's Chicago Business College, Chicago, 111., Aug. 14, 1883. 
Send to my address, by freight, 200 Clark's Commercial Law. 

J. J. SOUDER, Prop'r. 
Spencerian Business College, Milwaukee, Wis., Aug. 1, 1882. 
Please forward me, by express, 100 copies Clark's Commercial Law. 

R. C. SPENCER, Principal. 
The B. and S. Davenport Business College, Davenport, Iowa. 

Nov. 25, 1882. 
You may ship us, by freight. 120 Clark's Commercial Law. 

LILLIBRIDGE & VALENTINE, Principals. 
Metropolitan Business College, Chicago, 111., Aug. 8, 1882. 
Please ship us 150 Clark's Commercial Law. 

HOWE & POWERS, Pron'rs. 
Lawp.ence Business College, Lawrence, Kan., Aug. 25, 1882. 
Please etna us 100 copies Clark's Commercial Law. 

BOOR & McILRAVY, Prop'rs. 
New Jersey Business College, Newark, N. J., Sept. 22, 1882. 
Please send us, by express, 60 Clark's Commercial Law. 

MILLER & DRAKE, Principals. 



CLARK & IVUYNARD, Publishers, New York, 



Two-Book Series of Arithmetics. 

By James B. Thomson, LL.D., author of a 
Mathematical Course. 

1. FIRST LESSONS IN ARITHMETIC, Oral and 

Written. Fully and handsomely illustrated. For 
Primary Schools. 144 pp. 16mo, cloth. 

2. A COMPLETE GRADED ARITHMETIC, Oral 

and Written, upon the Inductive Method of Instruc- 
tion. For Schools and Academies. 400 pp. 12mo, cloth. 

This entirely new series of Arithmetics by Dr. Thomson 
has been prepared to meet the demand for a complete course 
in two books. The following- embrace some of the characteris- 
tic features of the books: 

First Lessons.— This volume is intended for Primary 
Classes. It is divided into Six Sections, and each Section into 
Twenty Lessons. These Sections covei' the ground generally 
required in large cities for promotion from grade to grade. 

The book is handsomely illustrated. Oral and slate exercises 
are combined throughout. Addition and Subtraction are taught 
in connection, and also Multiplication and Division. This is be- 
lieved to be in accordance with the best methods of teaching 
these subjects. 

Complete Graded.— This book unites in one volume 
Oral and Written Arithmetic upon the inductive method cf in- 
struction. Its aim is twofold : to develop the intellect of the 
pupil, and to prepare him for the actual business of life. In 
securing these objects, it takes the most direct road to a practi- 
cal knowledge of Arithmetic. 

The pupil is led by a few simple, appropriate examples to 
infer for himself the general principles upon which the opera- 
tions and rules depend, instead of taking them upon the author- 
ity of the author without explanation. He is thus taught to put 
the steps of particular solutions into a concise statement, or 
general formula. This method of developing principles is an 
important feature. 

It has been a cardinal point to make the explanations simple, 
the steps in the reasoning short and logical, and the definitions 
and rules brief, clear and comprehensive. 

Examples for Practice. Problems for Review, and Test Ques- 
tions are abundant in number and variety, and all are different 
from those in the author's Practical Arithmetic. 

Teachers and School Officers, who are dissatisfied with 
the Arithmetics they have in use, are invited to confer 
with the publishers. 

Clark & Maynard, Publishers, New York. 




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